4thanasia and the Law .
.1'1w vote, cast at a meeting of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society on the proposed -Bill • legalising Euthanasia-65 in favour and 25 against—represents not unfairly the balance of argument on the subject. It is obvious that there are objections to permitting a patient to decree his own death; even with all the safe- guards .that the proposed measure provides. As one speaker put it, for example, a patient when suffering severe pain may be unable to exercise calm judgement on the issues involved. Medical history, moreover, is full of examples of complete or partial recovery of patients pronounced incurable.. At the same time eases do un- questionably exist when a patient is lingering in unalleviated agony, with faculties dimmed by pain, • the short remainder of life a dragging torture, and with no conceivable hope of relief except by early death. In such cases there is both wisdom and • mercy in allowing the patient to decide that death shall come a little sooner than if nature were left to do its will unaided. Everything depends on the nature of the safeguards Imposed, and in that, respect the Bill drafted by the Society appears to meet every reasonable requirement.
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