Euthanasia?
An old man in an advanced, inoperable stage of prostatic cancer begged Morris Hirsch during a ward round to do something about his pain although he was already on high doses of morphia.
An old man had advanced, inoperable prostatic cancer. He begged Morris Hirsch during a ward round to do something about his pain although he was already on high doses of morphia.
There was no possibility of the man's recovery. He would be in agony for 'goodness knows how long.' The Staff Nurse doing the round suggested Morris end his misery. He recoiled.
Over tea, he replied that while he agreed with the compassion, he just could not do that. It was contrary to the Hippocratic Oath and went completely against his fundamental ethics.
"Are you man or mouse?" was cutting. After he administered a whopping dose of morphia intravenously, the enormity of his deliberate action to kill him hit him. He dashed away from the scene of the crime to the isolation of his quarters to think it over. He had little sleep that night.
The victim greeted him next morning with effusive thanks for the first deep sleep and pain relief in a long while!
But the dilemma haunted Morris until later, when with added experience of human suffering, both mental and physical, and applying the test to himself, he became an ardent advocate of euthanasia, both active and passive, way in advance of conventional wisdom, which is gradually accepting it.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
Excerpt from Dr. Morris Isaac Hirsch's Unpublished Memoirs. Hirsch Archives.