ctim?

This man, suffering agonies beyond the imagination to conceive, is of
no use to himself. His life is but a succession of pangs. He is of no
use to his wife, his children, his friends or society. Day after day
he is rendered unconscious by drugs that numb the nerves and put the
brain to sleep. Has he the right to render himself unconscious? Is it
proper for him to take refuge in sleep?

If there be a good God I cannot believe that He takes pleasure in the
sufferings of men--that He gloats over the agonies of His children. If
there be a good God, He will, to the extent of His power, lessen the
evils of life.

So I insist that the man being eaten by the cancer--a burden to himself
and others, useless in every way--has the right to end his pain and
pass through happy sleep to dreamless rest.

But those who have answered me would say to this man: "It is your
duty to be devoured. The good God wishes you to suffer. Your life is
the gift of God. You hold it in trust, and you have no right to end
it. The cancer is the creation of God and it is your duty to furnish it
with food."

Take another case: A man is on a burning ship; the crew and the rest
of the passengers have escaped--gone in the lifeboats--and he is left
alone. In the wide horizon there is no sail, no sign of help. He
cannot swim. If he leaps into the sea he drowns, if he remains on the
ship he burns. In any event he can live but a few moments.

Those who have answered me, those who insist that under no
circumstances a man has the right to take his life, would say to this
man on the deck, "Remain where you are. It is the desire of your
loving, heavenly father that you be clothed in flame--that you slowly
roast--that your eyes be scorched to blindness and that you die insane
with pain. Your life is not your own, only the agony is yours."

I would say to this man: "Do as you wish. If you prefer drowning to
burning, leap into the sea. Between inevitable evils you have the
right of choice. You can help no one, not even God, by allowing
yourself to be burned, and you can injure no one, not even God, by
choosing the easier death."

Let us suppose another case.

A man has been captured by savages in central Africa. He is about to
be tortured to death. His captors are going to thrust splinters of
pure into his flesh and then set them on fire. He watches them as they
make the preparations. He knows what they are about to do and what