Essays on the punishment of death / by Charles Spear.

  • Spear, Charles, 1801-1863.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the punishment of death / by Charles Spear. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    view: ' I do not,' says he, c regard as a very serious objection that pretended prohibition of suicide, whence it has been argued that we cannot dispose of human life. After Rousseau's admirable letters on suicide, he must be a bold man who would venture an off-hand opinion on such a serious question. ' When my coat straightens me, I throw it off. If my house does not suit me, I quit it. Why should I not abandon life 1 1 It is true, the savage may starve, or freeze, rather than kill himself; but yet he kills his venerable father, with his own hand, to save him from suffering under a decaying constitution, and the pangs of a lingering death. ' Besides, to start from a questionable point to estab- lish the point in question, is only to settle one doubt by another. ' The objection is a relic of the middle age, when the law punished suicide as a crime. Those punishments have been erased from our statutes. We cannot, therefore, admit that a principle which has been ex- cluded from our criminal legislation, should continue to constitute one of its elements.'* This reasoning will appear very singular to an American legislator. The author evidently felt the force of the objection, that man, having not the right * < Je ne considere pas comme une objection bien grave la pretendue defense d'attenter a notre propre vie, d'ou Ton conclut que nous ne pouvons pas davantage disposer de celle de nos seinblables. < Lorsqu' on a lu les admirables lettres de Jean Jacques sur le suicide, il devient temeraire de trancher legerement une aussi grave question. ' Quand un vetement me gene, je le quitte ; quand une habitation m'incommode, j'en sors. Pourquoi ne pourrais-je pas sortir de la vie ? ' On park du sauvage, qui souvent meurt de faim, de froid, et ne se tue point lui meme. «La chose est possible; raais on oublie que ce meme sauvage donne,