Show 0 ON KILLING THE HELPLESS THE TW SUGGESTION made by Dr br E ES Es L S Wright right before the Salt Lake County Couy Count Medical l association that the world should sanction executions by physicians pHi Of ur persons who are ar Incur anly diseased ased l I IM not a new one but buta a discussion of the question Is 15 always ys Interesting The case that drew out ut Dr Wrights remark was a type of its kind Tha Th patient U nt was vas a u woman or ot advanced years afflicted with a growth similar to goitre If It is not checked promptly and there is no sure way wa of bringing this this s bout she will n din di a gradual horrible h tri le death by suffocation The woman Can can an extract no enjoyment from tro n life every e ry breath Involves suffering every motion motton I excruciating pain pitin She herself would I gladly glad 1 Welcome vel release such a u release as a fatal dose of morphine would give her r Should the physician be bl permit permitted ted to act as her kindly executioner True there is one om chance In a hup dred thousand perhaps that ap an operation might relieve her The un uncertainty uncertainty certainty though thought is so great as to amount almost to certainty that she could not nol She has lived now no longer than the th allotted span she Is ready aye a e anxious for death it is s sl l not cruel to permit her to live on antI and andon antIon nI d don on In agony We Ve consider e the police pollee officer or a humane man when he h ends the sufferings of a crippled sick or helpless he less Mast bOast Should human beings be treated less humanely And there the affirmative argument A if It can OOn be ho b called argument must end No man manean can look Jook Into the future for forone forOno forone one Ono moment No physician can say with absolute certainty This man or orthis orthis orthis this woman this boy or girl will surely die dle True physicians do pro pronounce pronounce flounce the sentence of death in ia many man many cases and ala In the very large ma majority majority of such s ch cases c ses the physician speaks truly But sometimes he is mistaken taken Co Do not all of or us know Instances where after aft r all aU hope had aban abandoned abandoned the patient recovered Have we nOt nM seen doctors nurses friends lea leathe the bedside to prepare for a funeral that most of them will not live JIve long enough to attend Does Doea not the lh re rejected reja 4 ja applicant t for life lire insurance frequently fr outlive the doctor who pro his doom Therefore no man can cab say and know There is Ii no hope They think so so and they are will wilt willing willIng ing lug or they think they ey are ar willing willingto to end the sufferers agony but when the moment for tor the action arrives the supreme moment most of them would falter Once in a southern state a physician was culled called to attend and treat the Injuries of a man who vho had been be n crushed In a mine The unfortunates unfortunates nates s suffering was so great gre t as to tomake make the blood run cold with wilh horror It was apparent that he could not re recover recover cover over He H knew it and he begged the physician to administer a 1 drug that would insure him easy exit from life The doctor do tor moved beyond the thc power of words wortIs to express consented The Thep p died as af peacefully rully as a tired child falls asleep That physician never know knew another happy hour He lie died two years erS later esteemed and respected by all aU who know him as well as by byth th the thu flew who know of this incident t in his life Ufe he died before his time a broken remorseful man for he could rot not drive from his mind the thought The Tho man might have lived he might have ha v lived Surely the good God who ho gave life v who ho hn permits his children to suffer for his hs own good purpose knows best when hen to o take It |