RIGHT TO KILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 1

RIGHT TO KILL

Death Better Than Suffering

WOMAN POISONS HER MOTHER

By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. Received 11.6 a.m. LONDON, Tuesday. FOR the second time in a week the question of the right to kill has been raised in the courts. A dramatic story comes from Tonbridge, Kent, where Mrs. Margaret, Delvinge, 34, was charged with attempting to kill her mother, Mrs. Margaret Waite, who is in hospital suffering from cancer.

rpHE prosecution stated at the outset that Mrs. Delvinge visited the ward in the temporary absence of the matron, and administered poison. Dr. Newton, who was in charge of the mother, telephoned Mrs. Delvinge, saying, “What did you give your mother?” She replied: “I gave her arsenic, about an ounce of it. I got it from the surgery during the absence of the dispenser.” A second doctor said that Mrs. Delvinge summoned him and said she had given her mother arsenic in order to save her from weeks and months of suffering before death came.

Other medical evidence concerned Mrs. Delvinge’s mental condition. She was committed for trial. — A. and N.Z. A London cablegram of October 23 read as follows:—A heartrending story of misfortune was told when, before Mr. Justice Branson, at the Chester Assizes. Albert Davis, aged 28, was charged with the murder of his child. The Judge made a remarkable statement on the aspect of this murder being committed tp save a child, hopelessly ill, from pain. The Judge said: “This, is a heartrending story of a father who was driven to distraction by the suffering of his child, and he takes it upon himself to put an end to them. It gives food for thought. Had this poor child been an animal instead of a human being, then instead of this father being blameworthy, he would actually have been liable to punishment had he not done it.”