Year: 1873

Is SUICIDE ever lustlflablee Until the


other day, no one doubted that, to deprive


of life, whether ones own or that Of an


other, was criminal. IettwO Englishmen


of distinguished learning and ability have


boldly come forward to declare euthanasia,


in some cases, a..duty.s. One of them, writ


ing in the erudite pages of the Fortnight


ly, posed the questiosFwlth temerity


which naturally brought down upon his


devoted head a hurricane of critical con-


tumely for looking at ii from prosaical-


ly materialistic and humanitarian point of


view, he declared that, where the self


sacrifice of life was necessary to the health


or safety of others, and especially in cases


where disease rendered it question of a


brief period that the life to be sacrificed


would go out of itself, it was justice and


mercy that it should be cut off A man is


hopeless invalid diagnosis shows that


it is physically impossible that he should


recover; his malady is such as to affect


seriously the health of those who tend on


him and wearily watch for the end he


suffers himself, and can only look forward
to ceaseless suffering, to agonies


and pains, to sleeplessness and


writhing, until the happy release
comes; he can look for no satisfaction or
pleasure, or mental profit, from the pro
longation of such an existence. Why
should he drag it along so wretchedlv to
the certain and not distant end? Why
subject a loving household not only to the
pain of witnessing his miserable suffer
ings without being able so much as tC
curtail them for a moment, but to disease
and ruined health themselves? The re
viewer argues that in such an instance il
is an absolute duty for the sick man to
submit to voluntary extinction But Prof
Francis Newman goes further, and insists
that the principle Of voluntary suicide, as
a sanitary and human resort, may be eX
tended to broader limits. Imbued with
the spirit of an age which more and more


Graves to be fortified by scien
titic exactness, Professor Newman insists


on reducing the whole thing to system
He would have the Government establish
bureau of suicide; there should be a reg
istrar, with a thorough education, and q
fat salary, whose sole duty it should be tC


wait on would-be suicides, and take
| their depositions of voluntary consent to
the proposed 0ut0-de-fe; he would appoint
| a corps of physicians to determine above
Cavil whether the patient were beyond
hope of recovery, and that his continu-
ance in life was seriously nOcuous tC
| others; and he would thus legally estab
lish all the facts, and nsake the deed itself
| matter of official record Professor New
man is inclined to extend the system OF
voluntary destruction to the incurably in
sane, but seemingly forgets that the prin
cipal,element of it, as Overwhelmingly
| the free consent of the patient-could not
be obtained in the case of the insane
Evidently novel light is thrown by the


professor on the subject of suicide, but he
will find many formidable difficulties in
the way of the adoption of this theory
which would fatally disturb society as al


present constituted, besides running di
rectly counter to the prevailing state OF
religious convictions as to the sacredness
of life and death as the sole prerOgative OF


a higher power than man.-4ppleton's
Journal