The Right to Die
SIR,—I have read with interest Mr. Bavin's letter in reply to mine which appeared in the. Spectator of April 14th. I must still insist that it is utterly wrong for a minister of religion to give an opinion from a pulpit on the subject of euthanasia.
Any doctor of long, experience appreciates the fact that patients' moods and pronouncements vary during the course of an illness. Often enough patients express an emphatic wish to die, but in a week or two —and when recovery sets in—the wish to live establishes itself. If the mental outlook is depraved and depressed, it is the duty .of the physician to, if possible, remove the cause of the depression, e.g., many potential suicides have been saved and uplifted by shock therapy.
If the old ladies, whom Mrs. Bavin kindly visited, had been transported into the country and surrounded by congenial and kindly helpers, 1 have not the slightest doubt that this, combined with Christian sympathy, would have altered their mental outlook and re-established the wish to live. Fortunately kindness and sympathy are.not yet controlled in this country.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant. W. ANNANDALE TROUP. 42. Wimpole Street, W.I.
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