Euthanasia and Abortion
![handle is hein.journals/ucollr38 and id is 210 raw text is: EUTHANASIA AND ABORTION
GLANVILLE WILLIAMS*
Voluntary euthanasia and abortion are two of the most controversi-
al areas of the criminal law. In both the law has a religious origin; in
both, it now increases the sum of human misery instead of diminishing it.
EUTHANASIA
The rule prevails in the United States, as in Britain, that a person
who kills another with his consent for merciful reasons, when that other
person is suffering from a fatal and incurable disease, is guilty of murder
or manslaughter; and the rule is the same if he provides the sufferer
with the means of suicide. Apparently only in Texas is the position
different; there, the act of providing the means of suicide is not an
offense, but directly killing the sufferer is.'
Various attempts to change the law and allow voluntary euthanasia
have been made both in Britain and in the United States. The moving
force in this country is chiefly the Euthanasia Society of America,2 but
its efforts, like those of its British counterpart, have so far been unavail-
ing.
Death is the great taboo subject in our civilization-more so even
than sex. Except in war, most of us seem to be unable to contemplate
death calmly and rationally; at the last, we accept any circumstances of
degradation for ourselves, and strain and despair for those who love us,
rather than make a comfortable and dignified exit. And, until death
comes, we choose to know as little as possible about it. This attitude of
preferring not to think is perhaps the main reason for the general lack
of support given to the cause of euthanasia. (The word itself has come
to be such an unpalatable one that the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of
Connecticut has hopefully changed its name to the Humanitarian
Society.)
Until the 1960's, even doctors had made no study in Britain of the
physical and mental distress of the dying. Dr. J. M. Hinton's investigation
in 1963 dispelled several comfortable misconceptions? It has frequently
been argued that the legalization of voluntary euthanasia would have
little practical effect, because most dying patients do not know they are
*Charles Inglis Thomason Guest Professor, University of Colorado, 1965.
The present article is an expanded version of a lecture delivered in the University
of Colorado Summer Lecture Series. This article is also being published by the
Colorado Quarterly.
14 1. Williams, The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law 301 (1957).
2. Address: 139 E. 57th St., New York City, New York 10022.
3. The Physical and Mental Distress of Dying, 32 Quarterly Journal of
Medicine 1. See the editorial comment in [1963] 1 British Medical Journal 400.
See also Exton Smith, Terminal Illness in the Aged, [1961] 2 The Lancet 305.
178](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ucollr38&div=20&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Euthanasia and Abortion
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