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Show IMercy Hilling A test case soon will be heard in a Manchester, N. H., court that may well affect the future fu-ture of medicine in this country: If found guilty of killing Mrs. Abbie C. Borroto, will Dr. Hermann Her-mann N. Sander be sentenced according to law, or will the courts take a lenient stand on mercy killing? Problems of unusual, but controversial, con-troversial, medical significance including sterilization of the feeble-minded, restraint of deadly dead-ly psychopaths, as well as mercy killing are bound, regardless of the outcome of the Sander case, to attract a great deal of attention in the future. If the charges against Dr. Sander are true, it is still difficult dif-ficult to condemn him for what he lias done, even though many people may rightly believe that life and death are in God's hands. Nevertheless, when a person per-son is suffering in the last stages stag-es of cancer, as Mrs. Borroto was, death may be considered inevitable. If such is the case, the idea in Dr. Sander's mind, if guilty, was. to relieve her of unnecessary suffering. Those religiously inclined are likely to place many of the responsibilities re-sponsibilities of life in God's hands; but isn't it possible that God himself meant that man should solve many of his major problems? The difficulty, of course, is where, to draw the line. One can hardly condemn a parent nowadays for calling a doctor to look after a sick child: still, several centuries ago, and even i today in many parts of this country and the world, the summoning sum-moning of a doctor was (and is) considered evidence of lack of faith in the Almighty. Although a child's life is at stake, a doctor is called in to take life out of God's hands: or at least to assist as-sist Him in the child's recovery. If guilty, Dr. Sander faced a dilemma. As a conscientious member of the medical profession, profes-sion, he could either let Mrs. Borroto suffer, or else give her a painless way out. The regret-able regret-able fact about the whole matter mat-ter is that, if Sander did kill his patient, he waited until she was near death to do it. A person per-son may suffer month after month with an incurable disease, dis-ease, awaiting a death that is certain. Not everyone can have a cerebral hemmorhage, or same other painless attack or ailment, to ease the transition from life to death. The Sander case may turn out to be one of the most important cases in American criminal history, his-tory, or it may mean absolutely nothing. The prosecution may be unable to prove that Dr. Sander killed Mrs. Borroto. But the case could establish a precedent pre-cedent on mercy killing. Acquittal of Dr. Sander even though conclusive evidence were presented against him. which would mean partial justification of his deed, would undoubtedly offend a large segment of the American population. A verdict of guilty, however, if based on sufficient evidence, would appear ap-pear to others as a flagrant miscarriage mis-carriage of justice. Is it a wise policy to call murder murder when the victim is dying anv-way? anv-way? GWH |