22 NOVEMBER 1935, Page 72

EUTHANASIA

[To the Editor of TnE Sekx"rxrcort.1

SIR, We, who profess to be civilised and free, are bound down by trivial laws and bygone superstitions. Our activities arc still controlled by the dictum of a half-mythical Christ who died a lonely death in the dim past.

Christians are in the minority ; and yet we allow our very lives to be controlled by them. If we choose of our own free will to die, or to cause the death of those relations who arc no longer rational, what is that to the surviving professors of a dying faith ?

But the spectre of insanity and senility must still haunt us ; the time is not yet ripe for change: We may not yet regulate the population and intellect of Europe by controlling the birth rate. Until birth control is kgalised, how can we there- fore hope to have jurisdiction over the lives of the adult population, even though they may be our own ?

We are dooMed to sit and watch our minds die slowly and our bodies lose their strength. We shall have accomplished nothing if we live ; why then should we not die, instead of burdening our friends with our misery ? --I am, Sir, yours faithfully,