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Show SLAYING THE SICK. The discussion regarding the propriety pro-priety of painlessly nnd mercifully putting to death those who aro perishing perish-ing slowly in agony was given- more concrete form by Representative Gregory, Greg-ory, of the Iowa legislature, who Introduced a bill into that body requiring re-quiring physicians to end human life In cases where there is great suffering and death Is certain to result, and likewise like-wise to destroy hopelessly idiotic or deformed Infants. This is only to bo done when at least three, physicians and the county coroner unanimously agree to and participate In the act, and then only with the consent of the nearest relative, and, If possible, of the sufferer as well. Dr. Gregory, like others who havo advocated such a course, asserts that it Is now actually followed, only without system and without due authorization, almost dally in tho hospitals of Chicago, New York, and other cities. He regards his bill, thereforo, as merely legalization legaliza-tion of existing practice. It can hardly bo, said that tho measure Is popular. Tho press has almost universally com- 1 mented unfavorably, and his brother physicians deny with indignation the assertions mado by Dr. Gregory regarding re-garding hospital practice. Says Tho Standard-Union (Brooklyn, March 13) In its editorial column: "Dr. Gregory regards his bill as a humane measure, some twenty years ! ahead of tho ago. Ho must know that , it Is moro than twenty centuries behind be-hind tho ago, euthanasia having been practiced with the authorization of law only by tho Spartans, and It is strange that if It bo a humane measure, hu- 1 manlty should have abandoned it for I moro than sixty generations. It Is tho common sense of all humanity that the lifo or death of an afflicted person must be left to Providence, and that tho supremo duty of tho physician is ' to prevent or rather retard tho end, I so far as lies within his power. When 1 a man who Is a physician as well as a legislator declares that physicians and surgeons throughout tho country take 1 any other view of the matter he brings I tho medical profession into disrepute. i Ho justifies that dread of the hospital j which as every charity worker will J toll, is common to tho poor and unfor- 1 tunate who stand most in need of t. what the hospital should give. Ho at onco advertises and stultifies himself. him-self. "Tho authorities of every hospital in tho United States, and, indeed, throughout tho world, will bo prompt to deny his allegation that euthanasia , Is a dally practise; and an institution 1 whero it Is oven an occasional practise would bo instantly suppressed were the facts known. "As to the matter of destroying Infants In-fants deformed at birth, history proves that the Spartan theory was wrong. It often happens that the best intellect intel-lect is nature's compensation for the a worst body, and the infant's lntellect- ual potentialty may only bo guessed at. Tho Spartans would have killed Byron because ho had a club foot and the Constable do Bourbon because he had a crooked back. Logical enforcement enforce-ment of Dr. Gregory's ideas would have caused the murder of Homer and Milton when they became blind. Mahomet Ma-homet would have been slain l'ecause he had fits. Caesar and Napoleon would each have received his quietus in early youth because of epilepsy. ! Scarron would have been destroyed when taken with paralysis, and France , would havo lost the million laughs I which were surely worth several lives. i - Popo wouid havo received euthanasia before giving tho world his 'Essay on Man,' for ho was so feeble that ho had to bo laced in a strait-jacket in i order that ho might even sit up. "Tho list of great men who have been physically afflicted might bo indefinitely in-definitely extended, but thero is no need. Tho Gregory bill will not be- i como a law, and the only harm which j its introduction has wrought has been to cast suspicion upon the noblest of 1 professions and the most altruistic of j Institutions tho physicians and the ! hospitals." |