Comments on Dr. Nickerson's Views

New York Herald

Murder, says Osborne.

If any physician in this county should attempt to follow Dr. Nickerson's ideas and it should come to the knowledge of the District Attorney's office, the Grand Jury would be asked to indict him for murder. James W. Osborne, who, in the absence of District Attorney Gardiner, is Acting District Attorney, made this declaration yesterday.

"Any physician who makes such a confession is, if his confession be true, a murderer," said Mr. Osborne. "No one has the right to take another's life, and if such a confession came to my attention I should at once present the person making it to the Grand Jury for indictment for murder in the first degree. The only defence which could be interposed is lunacy, and I believe that any doctor who would make such a confession is a lunatic.

"Furthermore, any one who confesses that he has advised a person as to the easiest way to commit suicide is liable to indictment. If the person so advised succeeds in committing suicide, the physician who advised him would in this state be guilty of murder. If he attempted suicide and failed, the physician would be guilty of being accessory before the act to an assault; for technically a person who attempts suicide commits an assault on himself.

"On the general proposition of the right of a physician to withhold aid from an apparently dying person, in my opinion medical science has ot advanced far enough to intrust that power to any one. I have seen too many cases of persons slated for death where the slate has been broken and the patients have recovered, to care to intrust my chances of recovery or those of any one dear to me to the opinion of any physician. It is in my opinion the duty of a physician to use every means in his power to prolong life and to alleviate pain."

Charles A. Le Barbier, an Assistant District Attorney, said:—

"And one who curtails human life by so much as one second is guilty of murder, no matter what his motives may be. That he wished to spare his patient pain or to make easier his dying hours is no defence. It would be dangerous to society in the highest degree to intrust to any one the decision as to whether a life should be prolonged or not."—New York Herald.

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