EUTHANASIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 99, 17 December 1931, Page 7

EUTHANASIA

SCIENCE'S WEAPONS MAY BLUNT THE STING OF DEATH WELL KNOWN DOCTOR'S YIEWS A few weeks ago, Dr. Killick Millard, in an address to the Medical Health Officers' Society, in London, advocated the legalisation of vdluntary euthanasia for sufferers from incurable fatal diseases which entail a slow and painful death. In a Copenhagen court recently, Mrs. Elsie Wilie admitted that she had at last obeyed the entreaties of her mother, Baroness von Dube-n, who was suffering from incurable cancer, and gave hed a dose of poison which lcilled her within a few hours. "Although the practice of euthanasia, or medical treatment aimed at mak'ing death easy, has attracted many disciples since the beginning of the century, it is still the subject least studied by the average doctor, while to the gcncral public it is a total mystery," r:aid a well-known Australian medicnl man when interviewed on the subject. "Many doctors, onee they have decided that death is inevitable, let matters take tl.hr course," he said. "Their obvious duty and common humanity, alike demand that they should use every effort to effect a happy release. "Euthanasia is death as it ought to be, quite natural and devoid of pain. Little has been done by medical men to study this part of their profession. "Mitigation of the agony of disease not only may, in itself, lead to recovery, but sometimes ■ can render death a pleasant experience-. The duty of the physician at times is not so much to keep one in health, as to provide an easy and acceptable exit when one's tiime comes. Death Without Terror "Death in itself is rarely attended by severe bodily sufferings, despite ' the populat belief, and the terms 'mortal agony' and 'death struggle' are mostly misnomers. Death, therefore, should be deprived of all its terrors." Whatever might be the amount of previous suffering, the doctor pointed out, the departure of the soul from the body was mostly painless, and sometimes even attended by a feeling of pleasure. There was the case of Dr. William Hunter, the noted anatomist of the 19th century, who, as he breathed his last, whispered to his physician friend, "If I had strength enough to hold a pen, I would write how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die." "Why Not Drugs?" Turning to methods of easing death, the doctor strongly supported the use of narcotics, despite protests about their obscuring the mental faculties. He argued that it was far better for a dying person to havepeace than it was for him to understand fully all that was going on around him. When the patient was in grave danger opium should not he deemed a poison. Small doses not only prolonged suspense, but actually we-re more noxious than large ones. "Ttiirn up the Lights" Contrary to the popular belief, whispering, darkness and utter silence were to be avoided in a room of death, for moderate external impulses of the senses were beneficial. "A moderate light, the even tones of the voices of friends, and everything of that kind is soothing," he added. His advice in this respect recalls the last words of the world-famous writer, 0. Henry. "Turn up the lights," 0. Henry said. "I do not want to go home in the dark."