Euthanasia

Richard Corbett, citizen of France, son of an English banker, stood in the iron-railed prisoner's dock at Draguignan in Southern France last week, facing a judge and a jury of hard-faced farmers. Hesitant witnesses told how the accused had learned that his elderly French mother was suffering from an incurable cancer, how he had taken care of her for months; then how, when doctors had given up all hope, he had cleaned his revolver, walked into his mother's bedroom, kissed her, shot her dead, then shot himself but not fatally.

"Richard Corbett," said the presiding judge, grave in his white lace collar and black hat, "did your mother ask you to kill her? . . . It was you who coolly and deliberately took her life?"

Said the prisoner, turning to the Jury: "Gentlemen: My mother was suffering torture. The doctors agreed she could not recover. I felt that, though I broke the law, I did right. I'm willing to pay any penalty you think just. My action would not have been necessary if the state would pass a law enabling doctors to end the suffering of incurables."

Interrupted the Judge: "It was for God to consider when your mother should have died, not you. God might have prolonged your mother's life."

"God," whispered Richard Corbett, "is only a religious belief."

Women wept hysterically. A farmer-juryman paled, called for brandy, collapsed. Locked up at last in the jury room the farmers soon sent out a message, stated that they wished to find a verdict against the prisoner but wanted assurance from the Judge that Richard Corbett would be pardoned.

"That is not within my functions," answered the Judge irritably. "Pardon is a prerogative of the President of the Republic."

The jury knew their judge, were not so sure of President Gaston Doumergue. Twenty minutes later they brought in a verdict of Not Guilty.

"The verdict makes no difference," said Richard Corbett gloomily. "I no longer have my mother."

Reactions. Editors, rejoicing in so controversial a question as Euthanasia (Greek term for "killing in mercy"), sent reporters last week to question the world-prominent on the Corbett verdict. The following names made the following answers:

Professor Albert Einstein (relativity): "I approve unqualifiedly the action of Richard Corbett, and I am happy in his acquittal by the French court, where a healthy feeling for the spirit of justice triumphed over the dead letter of the law."

George Bernard Shaw: "It is impossible to have a state of affairs in which one person may shoot another and then allege it was a sort of suicide by deputy. Suicide cannot be permitted by deputy."

French Prime Minister Andre Tardieu: "As chief of the Government I certainly have no right to comment on a decision taken by appropriate jurisdiction. What I think remains with me."

Mme. Lucie de la Rue-Mardrus (translator, with her husband, of The Arabian Nights): "The jury of Var farmers returned the same verdict as would have been returned by a jury of intellectuals."

Parisian Novelist Francois Mauriac: "It is lucky the jury was chosen among people not given to the habit of reflection. For myself, it would have taken me about a year to make up my mind."

U. S. Senator Hiram Johnson: "The principle of killing people to put them out of their misery does not appeal to me."

Manhattan Magistrate Jean Norris: "Of course I can appreciate the state of mind at the time, but that does not justify him in any way."

Lawyer George Gordon Battle: "To allow a private individual, without any judicial investigation, to put another person to death is contrary to all our ideas of jurisprudence and is highly dangerous."

Psychiatrist Abraham Arden Brill (Freud-follower): "I am heartily opposed to the killing of this woman. . . . Society is based on repression, and the most important repression is the command 'Thou shalt not kill.'"

U. S. Naturalist William Beebe: "That man was absolutely justified in what he did. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever. I'd have done the same thing myself without any thought of the laws involved. . . . Of course I don't hold human life in as much esteem as many people and I don't think my opinion is worth much, I've been out among the savages too much.

"I had a similar case once myself. Two Indians with me in British Guiana when we were about five days by canoe from anywhere, had their legs crushed and most certainly would have died within two days. I put them out of their suffering with morphine and was thanked by the other Indians in my party. . . . As to whether I intentionally killed them, that is something I don't care to discuss. I should rather let people draw their own conclusions."