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Show HAS SHE RIGHT I TO KILL SELF I WHEN DESIRED? Suicide Pact Survivor ,1s Center of Energetic Controversy By MIITON BRONNER M . Service Staff Correspondent LONDON. Nov. 25. Has a woman a right to commit suicide " Should she 1r sent to prison for attempting self-destruction ? The law says "No" to the .first question and "Yes" to the second. ! But a score of the most distinguished ! persons in Great Britain protest the law is wrong. The controversy, growing spectacular, spectac-ular, revolves around Mrs. Maud Hlb-J hert, survivor In a suicide pact with. t man. After lying In jail six weeks; awaiting trial on a charge of attempt-) ing suicide, she as convicted and sentenced to serve nine months in prison at hard labor. Half of Mrs Hibbert's sentence has gone by and petitions for clemency have been sent to the home secretary urging that she was "led away by the man. Jias already suffered punishment... punish-ment... and that such a punishment! is not calculated to Increase her respect re-spect for life nor act as a deterrent; to others." DRI N KV Vf I B S I FAV Says John Drinkwater. famous playwright, one of tho signers of the pi tition . "Before a woman reaches a frame of mind which leads to such an act she must have endured the greatest possible mental agony. To keep her In prison on toi of that seems to me both cruel and futile." Stephen KfcKenna, novelist, says "I hold the view that .anybody's life is the properly of that particular person If ou wish to take your own life you ought to be allowed to do so. Suicide otten is hard on one's family, hut i don t think any department depart-ment of the government has the right to keep peoplo alive if they don't want to live." The cose is attracting great attention atten-tion because In some cases under the) British law the survivor in a. double; suicide pa. t. can b Indicted for minder min-der as well as for attempting suicide. Petitioners for eclemency for Mrs. ILbbert include Viscountess Rhondda, coal operator and suffragist; May Sinclair, novelist Mrs, Wintrlngham, member of parliament. Miss Olem-ence Olem-ence Lane, playwright; George Bernard Ber-nard Shaw, John Masefleld. G K Chesterton. Maurice Hewlett. Arnold Henr.ett. II G Wells. John Gals-Wprthy, Gals-Wprthy, E P. Benson, Sir Henry New -bolt and Bertrand Russell. oo |