Right To Die, 1897

Today, I found this editorial in the Daily Californian from January 23, 1897 and thought it was interesting considering what has been in the news recently about Brittany Maynard and her right to die. Bakersfield takes a rather progressive stance.

As transcribed:

"Some of our contemporaries seem disposed to think that Miss Nettie Curran of Oakland is guilty of a high crime. It appears that her father, Thomas Curran, being afflicted with a painful disease that incapacitated him from labor, decided to find surcease in the great beyond. So he took a dose of poison, bade his daughter farewell, told here what he had done and why, and laid down to die. The daughter, in pursuance of her father's wishes, let him carry out his desire and he died. We fail to see wherein she is to blame. If a man under the conditions noted desires to join the majority, why not let him do so? Is there any kindness in keeping him here to suffer? We put diseased and injured animals to death from sentiments of mercy and kindness. Why not let a human animal remove himself from incurably suffering?"