[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In connection with the discussion on euthanasia, your readers may be interested in the following extract from Sir Thomas More's " Utopia." I quote from Raphe Robynson's translation, 1556 :— " Bat yf the disease be not onelye incurable, but also full of contynuall payne and anguishe; then the priestes and magis- trates exhort the man, seinge he is not hable to doo anye dewtye of lyffe, and by overlyvinge his owns deaths is noysome and irke- some to other, and grevons to himselfe, that he wyl determine with himselfe no longer to cherysbe that pestilent and peineful disease. And seinge his lyfe is to him but a tormente, that he wyl not bee unwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to him, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out of a prison, or a racke of torments, or elles suffer himselfe wyllinglye to be rydde outs of it by other.
They that be thus persuaded, Ilnyshe theire lives willynglye, either with hunger, or elles dye in tbeire sleape without anye fealing of deathe. But they cause none ruche to dye agaynste his wyll, nor they use no lesse dilygence and attendaunce about him, belevinge this to be an honorable deathe. Elias he that killeth himself before that the priestes and the counsel have allowed the cause of his deathe, him as unworthy either to be buryed, or with fier to be consumed, they caste unburied into some stinkinge marrish."
Datchelor Training College, Camberwell.
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