Excavations


... nothing is more essential to public interest than the preservation of public liberty.

- David Hume



Monday, February 9, 2015

Thoughts on Physician-Assisted Suicide

The Oath of Hippocrates (c. 460-c.370 B.C.)

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I will consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.  I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel …[1]

St. Augustine Confessions (c. 400 A.D.)

You seek the happy life in the region of death; it is not there.  How can there be a happy life where there is not even life?[2]



[1] Hippocrates, The Theory and Practice of Medicine (New York: Citadel Press, 1964), x.
[2] Saint Augustine, Confessions, tr. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 64.

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