Neary, James T.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 6 | Number 2 Article 5April 1938Euthanasia*James T. NearyFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationNeary, James T. (1938) "Euthanasia*," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 6 : No. 2 , Article 5.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol6/iss2/5THE LINACRE QUARTERLY EUTHANASIA* BY JAMES T. NEARY, ESQ. Assistant District Attorney, County of New York The subject of euthanasia is by no means a new one. It was well known to the ancients. The Spar-tans, a warlike people, exposed on mountainsides the young who were deformed and who could not grow up to become warriors, so that they would be destroyed either by exposure or by wild animals. In 1925, there were five so-called mercy killings within the space of four months - two in France, one in England, and two in the United States. The doctors in these cases admit, to put it mildly, that they had "eased" the patients out of their suffering. These cases started a rapid fire of comment and the old question was raised as to whether it was proper (when death seemed preferable to life) for men to die either by their own choice or the choice of others. From time to time, the whole ques-tion has been fiercely debated, and in England "a campaign to estab-lish the right of persons suffering from incurable diseases to · die" was announced. The occasion of this campaign was the reputed confession by a British doctor of five so-called mercy slayings; and Lord Moynihan, a distinguished British surgeon, was alleged to have declared that he and other influential members of the medical profession would meet with some *Address delivered at meeting of New York Physicians-Yorkville Medical So-ciety, February 23, 1938. clergymen to make plans to bring the question before the country. The slogan of the British Medi-cal Society is Forsitan scintilla manet, "The spark of life may re-main." Lord Moynihan, however, is quoted as , saying: "The right to die is gaining support through-out the country and we believe that we will find no opposition ex-cept from Roman Catholics, who are objecting for obvious rea-sons." He did not state the rea-sons but we presume that he means that the Catholic Church insists in what is an obvious philosophic, moral, and religious fact that human life in its beginning, through all its progress and to its end, belongs to God alone; that since God ·is the author of life, God alone has the right to deter-mine when life shall end. . Let us see for a moment what life is. Life is a gift of God, trans-mitted through the instrumental-ity of parents. Science, with all its advances, can never hope to create life. Since life is a God-given gift and man does not cre-ate it, how then can man or any group of men dare to presume to say when life shall end. The theory that the medical profession or any other shall have the power to de-termine when a person must die has embraced an atheistic and ma-terialistic liberalism which consid-ers man only as an animal. The Catholic religion and all other [ 38 1 THE LINAORE QUARTERLY faiths hold that man is a creature composed of body and soul. If this be not so, why profess any relig-ion; and if the soul be something over which we have no dominion, why depend upon the love of God and the mercy of God to reward the soul for keeping His command-ments and living a good life. As a matter of fact, the power to pass sentence upon the unborn, and under certain conditions to deter-mine whether life shall begin or not, is in this state the legal right of doctors; it is, however, not a moral right. The law holds that where it is necessary, in order to save the life of a pregnant woman, a doctor performs an abortion, such abortion is not a criminal act. Some physicians are not sat-isfied with the restriction this plac.es upon them by law. They want to liberalize the law, as they say, and gain further legal rights over unborn human life. If a person who wishes to die, shall pass judgment upon himself by having that wish carried out by a doctor, that person assumes ownership and dominion over his life. There has arisen among the medical profession, a group which does not hesitate to commit abor-tions although at the time of the commission of the abortion, the mother is not in danger of death. This is an abuse of their right under the law. Who shall say that such an abuse would not spring in-to being were euthanasia legalized, and the doctor or board of doctors be themselves the sole determining body as to when euthanasia should be administered. Prior to the coming of Christ human life was held very cheaply. The pagans did not hesitate to commit suicide or to sacrifice the young. Lord Moynihan states this quite briefly, and goes so far as to say that "the pendulum in these matters is swinging back and we . are again close to the ancient ways of thought." He is speak-ing truly, because at the present time we are weltering in a sea of pagan conduct and pagan thought. The end of medical science is to save human life, not to stop it at its source, and not to end disease and suffering by slaying the pa-tient. Doctors should hesitate to attempt by euthanasia to become the gravediggers of the nation or of humanity. Those who believe in God and who believe that God gave the commandments to Moses, cannot fail to keep in mind the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." Killing is justified only on one of the following grounds : in self-defense of one's own life or of one near and dear to self; by the state as protection against criminals; and, thirdly, in time of war for the crime of treason. Can anyone, under the circumstances, feel that by legislation the right to kill can be passed on to any group of persons? Let us take the question of insanity. We hear to-day of the scandals created by sanity experts and doctors for im-prisoning in insane asylums, per-sons believed to be insane, and it [ 39 1 THE LINAORE QUARTERLY has been stated in the public press by a reporter who succeeded in having himself adjudged insane that there are hundreds of people in the insane asylums who should not be there. There is a great temptation on the part of those related to elderly persons of means to have them declared insane so that they may have control over the person and propei:ty of the al-legedly insane. Would there not be great danger of having un-scrupulous persons administer eu-thanasia to wealthy persons at .the instigation of their heirs at law or next-of-kin, who seek thus to hasten the end of the wealthy per-sons, so that possession of their fortunes may be taken. If we are to believe that life and liberty are sacred to the indi-vidual; and that the individual and not the state, is the one to be considered, euthanasia cannot make out a case for itself. Nor can its strongest adherents do so. After the inauguration of the Nazi regime in Germany there was an organized attempt to revive the old German pagan philosophy, the ministry of justice announcing its plan to authorize euthanasia. It was to be so safeguarded that no life valuable to the state would be wantonly destroyed, and in that statement the secret of paganism is disclosed. A citizen is not for himself; he is not vested with rights antecedent to the state; is not a child of God, but is only the tool, the plaything, the instrument of the deified state. The so-called "right" to commit suicide (and this so-called "right" is forbidden by the law of this state) is closely allied with the right to euthanasia. Both con-cepts are due to materialistic philosophy which is incapable of rising to a view of man which transcends time and space. Human life, they hold, consists in mutual service, and when usefulness is over, it is the simplest of rights to choose the quick and easy death. We deny that this is the meaning of human life - usefulness to others. All this is cheap and tawdry. It masquerades under a maudlin sentimentality and lack of fortitude and fear of pain. If God has exclusive right over human life, homicide in any form, and euthanasia - the taking of life, either through medical boards or otherwise--is a denial of that exclusive right of God's. There has recently sprung up what are called humanitarians: Their cry is to relieve the sufferings of the incurable. They cry that the sui-cide has a right to take his own life. They cry that the individual has a right to tamper with the very sources of life and that so-ciety has a right to protect itself by annihilation of the old and de-fenseless. This philosophy is grounded on cruel, fatalistic, cyni-cal, and pagan aspects towards life; the same, which in Spartan days caused helpless infants to be set out on mountain tops to be food for vultures and wild beasts. It is that philosophy which en-slaved whole nations, so that Greek ana Roman patricians might live a r 4o 1 THE LINAORE QUARTERLY life of ease and rottenness and cor-ruption. All these things empha-size the cheapened regard for human life. Pain is inflicted, if we believe in a God, at the will of God. We believe that pain can . be offered by the sufferer as a pen-ance for sins committed during one's lifetime, and that those who bear their pain with fortitude and courage are great contributors to our social organism. Many such people live for years in pain, m~ny without complaint. All those who advocate euthanasia as an easy and pleasant death, willed by the sufferer, legalized by the state and induced by painless medical means, will be depriving the Lord of his right over human life. We hold that the state has no moral right to legalize euthanasia because the morality of the act, its goodness or padness, should not ultimately rest on governmental decree. It has been said that only a totali-tarian state could have this power. This power is contrary to our own Declaration of Independence, which holds that basic human rights and basic morality are antecedent to human governments set up for the protection of life and morality. Are any so bold as to hold that the state is to deter-mine morality? To sum it up, the Catholic point of view teaches that the value of human life is founded on the fact that every individual be-longs to the exclusive dominion of God and that for every individual Christ suffered and died. I sup-pose if euthanasia had been pos-sible in the days of Christ, when H e was dying on the cross, those who saw Him in His dreadful suf-ferings, would have been willing to relieve His agony by administer-ing euthanasia. Life 'begins by a creative act of God, which pro- . duces a human being, through the cooperation and with the procrea-tive activity of the parents. Life is thus a gift of God, . for even doc-tors know that in many cases where families wish to beget, this gift of life is denied them. The rule of reason forbids the destruction of human life as an in-vasion of God's exclusive domin-ion. This is borne out by the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." Can any doctor state definitely when a person is incurable? In-stances are on record where per-sons have been given up, and, strange to relate, have recovered. The advance of medicine is meas-ured by its ability to cure hither-to allegedly incurable diseases. Surely the end does not justify the means. :Alleviation of I(>Uffer-ing cannot justify the destruction of human life. Euthanasia, we hold, is a wilful tendency contrary to one's whole nature, and whether self-inflicted or inflicted by others at the request of the sufferer, is unnatural and illegal. Euthanasia is founded on a viewpoint that de-struction of life is preferable to pain and suffering. If we incul-cate this idea into the youthful mind, we engender · a destructive fear of pain and suffering. Sol-r 41 1 THE LINACRE QUARTERLY diers in time of war, will hesitate to undergo hardship; suffering people in various occupations, whose lives are mere drudgery, will seek euthanasia or commit suicide. Women frightened at the thought of , bearing children, may seek eu-thanasia. The fear and dread of pain are often worse than the ac-tuality, hence life may be ended while hope of recovery is just around the corner. REMARKS ON THE PSYCHONEUROSES (Conti'IIIUed from page 91) "hystera," the womb. It was sup- the Turks. They were followed posed that for some reason the by the Greeks. Recognition of womb migrated about the body, hysteria then went around the causing disturbance. According Mediterranean basin. It was to Plato, "The matrix is an ani- noted in the Latins, Italians, mal which loves to generate chil- French and Spanish. Then it dren. When it is cheated it · gets moved up through Europe. Only mad. It runs about the body, up- later was it seen in the Germans. setting things and occasioning It was rare among the Scandi-various diseases until desire and navians. I have yet to see it in a love end its peregrinations." Scotchman. You may know the Hence, Globus Hystericus, what reason. I have seen it in every the laity understands by hysteria, other nationality and in most that is when a woman has a tan- races. truro, yells, stamps her feet or Recently in a hospital, a patient pulls her hair, of course is not in suddenly developed what was re-the true sense hysteria. garded as a cerebral insult. He Hysteria is a conversion mecha- was described as having a left nism whereby psychic conflict is hemiplegia and . being aphasic. transferred to the somatic level. When seen, he had an apparent By conversion the complex is de- hemiplegia and an aphonia. It prived of affect. This is the real was noted that he had been treat-object of conversion and hence ed for an abscess of the epiglottis. valuable to the individual. Hys- Smears had been made; also a teria may be regarded as an infan- biopsy. He had heard discussions tile way of reacting. It represents of his condition. Naturally he the wish to obtain something. was greatly concerned. Evidently Hysteria is rather a peculiar he had become cancer conscious. disorder. The first men described So while asleep, with his inhibi-as having hysteria were probably tions in abeyance and his forecon-[ 4-2 1 

Euthanasia*

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Euthanasia*

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