FATHER’S RIGHT TO KILL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2994, 4 February 1926, Page 3

FATHER’S RIGHT TO KILL.

DOCTOR AND DEFORMED CHILD.

The old question Avhether considerations of love and pity condone the taking of human life is to be threshed out in the State of Colorado, U.S.A., Avith the trial of Dr. Harold Blazer, a reputable physician, of Littleton, who confesses to chloroforming his daughter Hazel, Avho had been born without arms or legs and Avas deaf, dumb and a hopeless imbecile since birth. One remarkable argument to be advanced by the defence is that Hazel Blazer Avas not human in the meaning of the laAv, because of the impossibility of such a distorted creature having a soul. To take the life of such, it Avill be argued, was not murder. The prosecutor made it clear hg will not ask for the extreme penalty, because, admittedly, the doctor’s plight was pitiable and his provocation extreme. Briefly, Dr. Blazer’s story is that for thirty-two years he had cherished, attended and loved a little bundle of distorted humanity who had never uttered a Avord never listened to the voices of loved ones, never moved of her oavii volition. Through pneumonia, typhoid and other serious illnesses he had sat by by her bedside day and night, the the only person on earth ivho could interpret this being’s needs and desires. He Avas content to sacrafice his life to keep the little spark alight in the deformed body of his only 'child until the frailities of old age aroused in him the terrible fear that he would die and his helpless child be left to an unsympathetic world. The only way out, as Dr. Blazer saiv it, Avas to release himself from the long vigil by taking his own life and his daughtei s at the same time. He administered chloroform and the daughter died, but he recovered. The defence Avill ask: Was the aged physician sane when he chloroformed his daughter to death and was Hazel endowed with a soul and reason, and therefore a human being 1 ? The prosecution will merely ask T Did or did not Hazel have a right to life?