15 MARCH 1873, Page 14

EUTHANASIA.

[TO TRH F,Drroa OF TAB " spErrero4.1 Sra,—Possibly it has not occurred to your correspondents, when advocating Euthanasia, that the majority of people over fifty have passed through accidents or illnesses during which their lives have been despaired of, and death has been longed for as the only relief to hopeless agony ; yet more duties were to be performed, more hopes realised, before those lives had fulfilled their destiny.

What human power can decide when pain " is no longer curative," or when the desire for death is not due to temporary exhaustion of the brain ? Are doctors and nurses infallible ; or "friends " with expectations, or heartbroken relatives, with all that is dear to them hovering between life and death ?—I am,