The Right to Die Sia.--Many cases of euthanasia have been
reported in the American Press recently. We all believe in the "right to live," but how many of us believe that under 'certain circumstances we also have the "right to die " ? What brought me to this latter belief was the stories my wife used to bring home to me after visiting an old women's home in the East End, where there were about fifty poor old souls sitting round a large room who could neither read nor write and who spent most of their time "praying that the dear Lord would take them home." They realised that they were of no use to theinselves nor to anybody else, but they had a moral objection to committing suicide even if they had the opportunity. I ask, "Have not such people the right to die ? " And how many more thousands of old folk there must be in this country who are in like circum- stances?
Many people may believe in euthanasia for those suffering from incur- able diseases and in constant unbearable pain, but my contention goes further than that. Some months ago I put the following question to Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, Minister of the City Temple, which he answered in a sermon preached on January 15th last: "Would it be wrong for the Government to pass an Act entitling anyone over the age of seventy years to be given a certificate from the Ministry of Health authorising euthanasia by a duly qualified medical practitioner ? " A condition attached to the granting of such a certificate should be that due care be taken that the patient is exercising his (or her) own free will and has not been the subject of a* outside persuasion. This could be assured by the appointment of a panel of investigators, composed of representatives of the medical and legal profession and of the Ministry of Health, to whom every applicant should apply and give their reasons for desiring euthanasia. It would be for the Minister of Health to make what provision he thought necessary to safeguard this all-important concession from abuse.
Dr. Leslie Weatherhead in his sermon—while agreeing to euthanasia for those suffering from incurable diseases—did not go as far as I advocate ; viz., that the same release from a useless life should be granted to any old person over seventy years of age who conscientiously desired it. Why should old people be forced to live on after they have finished their life's work ? Incidentally, it would free the doctors of all responsibility for administering euthanasia if such a certificate were obtainable from the Ministry of Health, and would surely be a relief to many medical men who have to attend incurable and painful cases which must cause them much distress.
I shall myself be seventy-two years of age this year, and so long as I am able to do a useful job of work I have no wish to die, but my plea is on behalf of those who have nothing left to live for and who feel that they are only a burden tb others, even though they may not be unwanted.— Yours faithfully, OWL BAV1N. 13 Gerard Road, Barnes, S.W.13.
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