of the noblest characters of history are most
glorious for such endurance. The suicide rejects this greatness; he robs
God of service and glory, he rebels against his Creator. Even Plato of
old understood the baseness of suicide, when he wrote in his dialogue
called "Phaedon" that a man in this world is like a soldier stationed on
guard; he must hold his post as long as his commander requires it; to
desert it is cowardice and treachery; thus, he says, suicide is a
grievous crime.

This being so, can a Doctor, or any other man, ever presume to
contribute his share to the shortening of a person's life by aiding him
to commit suicide? We must emphatically say No, even though the patient
should desire death: the Doctor cannot, in any case, lend his
assistance to violate the right and the law of the Creator: "Thou shalt
not kill."

I have no doubt, gentlemen, that some of you have been saying to
yourselves, Why does the lecturer insist so long upon a point which is
so clear? Of course, none of us doubts that we can in no case aid a
patient to commit suicide. My reason for thus insisting on this matter
is that here again we are dealing with a living issue. There are to-day
physicians and others who deny this truth, not in their secret practice
only, but, of late, to justify their conduct, they have boldly
formulated the thesis that present apparent expediency can lawfully be
preferred to any higher consideration. Here is the fact. At a
Medico-Legal Congress, held in the summer of 1895, Dr. Bach, one of its
leading lights, openly maintained it as his opinion that "Physicians
have the moral right to end life when the disease is incurable, painful,
and agonizing."

What his arguments were in support of his startling proposition, I have
not been able to learn. But I know that a cry of horror and indignation
has gone up from many a heart. Many have protested in print; but unless,
on an occasion like this, moralists raise their voice against it with
all the influence which sound principles command, the saying of
Dr. Bach may at least shake the convictions of the rising generation of
physicians. The only argument for Dr. Bach's assertion that I can
imagine--and it is one proceeding from the heart rather than the
head--is that it is cruel to let a poor man suffer when there is no
longer hope of recovery. It is not the Physician that makes him suffer;
it is God who controls the case, and God is never cruel.

He knows His own busi