Supporters of euthanasia will undoubledly welcome the verdict given by the jury in the "merey murder" trial, whereby a young woman of twenty was acquitted of a charge of murdering her mother, a patient in '2 mental hospital, by administering a poison, for the purpose of shortening her sufferings. The girl gave her mother the poison in some sweetmeats and the latter died the following week from bronchial pneumonia. Mr. Norman Birkett, xc, for the de fence, successfully contended that the vital link between the administration of the drug and the incidence of the fatal illness had not been proved, with the result that the accused was quitted. In one way that Is to be regretted. On the accused's own missions ' she did administer poison for the purpose of killing her mathe: the motive might from one point of view be admirable, but the fact remains that whether her act did cause th oF not, the deed was one for which she cetid and should have been, Punished, It 1s obviously against the ublic interest that persons without special knowledge, and, therefore, without the necessary qualifications. should be allowed to make decisions terminating a life. For fully qualified copie the forming of such a judgment must be fraught with greatest responsibility. Tt Is not a "matter
certainly not by the ignorant. Thus which can be decided. light, and white there may be much to be said for a legal and properly controlled system of euthanasia, nothing but condemnation can be possible for: such acts as that of which the young woman in question has been adjudged innocent. On the facts the jury does not appear to have gone very far wrong, but It seems a pity that where there is a possibility of a trial ending fas it has in this case, some additional charge could not have been made if only for the purpose of impressing upon the accused and the public large the illegality of her action. sit WELL V¥VYAN
In 1906 Lieutenant Well Vyvyan wes promoted Commander and appointed Flag Commander to Vice-Admitol Sir Arthur Moore then in command of the China Station." He died in London on the last day of September, Air Viee-Marshal Sir Well Vyvyai, Beachmaster at Anzac in' 1915, Captain Vyvyan, as he was then, after com: manding HOMES. Endymion, was appointed to the Air Department of the Admiralty, On the creation of the Royal Air Force he was regraded Colonel and temporary Brigadier General. In 1919 when ihe Raya! Air Force's own titles were devised, he became Air Commodore and was promoted to Air Vice-Marshal in the same year. He retired in 1925 and became a Director of Imperial Airways Limited. On the first regular tirsmail service to India in 1929 he Mew with the present Secretaty of State' for Forel Affairs, then Secretary of State for Air as a fellow passenger to Cairo. Sir Well in the journey to India and back covered 15,006 miles in 15 days. "He won the DSO. at Anzac. He may be fairly considered to have been one of the pioneers of air development in the British Empire.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.