FROM SIRIUS' POINT OF VIEW
A distressing problem

The question that arose with this young woman, murderer of her husband, acquitted by the Assize Court, arises again, in perhaps even more painful circumstances. A young woman kills her sister who is tubercular and tired of suffering. The unfortunate woman preferred death to hospital. She begged her elder sister to put an end to her atrocious pain. What a tragedy! But the details are particularly awful. Five times, the murderer had to shoot the unfortunate woman to be able to kill her definitively. Then, she wanted to use the sixth bullet. Too late. And she no longer had enough money to buy another revolver.

A tragedy of misery. A tragedy of illness. And what a pitiful thing it is that a human being is prey to the sneaky attacks of an evil that eats away at the will, annihilates conscience. Eternal sleep, right away, rather than this persistent suffering through a slow agony. And how can you refuse the loved one, who implores and screams his despair, the definitive peace, the gesture of deliverance that he expects from you?

All comments remain vain and powerless. However, what will the judges do? Condemn? Impossible.

Shouldn't similar cases force attention? Couldn't such physical misfortunes, without any remedy, be entrusted to the care of the doctor responsible before his conscience and to whom one would grant the right to decide?

It is not rare that, in hospitals, doctors having recognized the impossibility of tearing a poor devil from his tortures, order an injection that will shorten his days, but which will relieve him.
How many, who could have resisted, perhaps a few more weeks, have died like this? Died from the compassion and charity of the doctor. When all hope must be abandoned, when what remains of your existence is nothing more than a series of torments, it is better to go away, in total unconsciousness, peacefully, as one falls asleep.

Yes, that is infinitely better than dragging oneself to the feet of a sister or a wife and begging for the revolver bullet that will bring you peace.

Yes, but... have we not seen men of science proclaim, at the bedside of a sick person, that everything was over, that the patient was condemned and that there was nothing left to do but let it be. Then, a few weeks later, fortunately having survived, the sick person stood up, giving the lie to his doctor. Suppose that the doctor, armed with a formidable power, recognized by Society, had believed it necessary to anticipate the call of Death...

Who will be able to judge, with complete certainty, the appropriateness of the homicidal act? The problem is terrible.
Dying may be easy. But killing? If I were a juror, I would acquit, certainly. But I have the idea that I would spend, after that, some bad nights.

Victor MERIC.