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SUMMARY: This essay seeks to chronicle the controversy surrounding euthanasia that came to a head in the United States around 1906, and to situate that debate in a meaningful historical context. An extensive examination of newspaper coverage of the legislative proposals to legalize the practice in Ohio and Iowa reveals that (1) the discourse occurred in a context in which both supporters and opponents of euthanasia generally agreed that the practice already occurred with frequency; (2) the discussion was heavily influenced by a simultaneous controversy surrounding eugenics; and (3) most of the opponents of legalization relied upon practical rather than religious or moral arguments to further their cause.
KEYWORDS: euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, mercy killing, eugenics, Anna S. Hall, Dr. Walter Kempster, Iowa public health legislation, Ohio public health legislation, Charles Eliot Norton
On 25 January 1906, Milwaukee physician Walter Kempster revealed in the Milwaukee Free Press that he had "given a patient a fatal dose of morphine" when she was close to death "in order to prevent further suffering."1 The case was that of an army colonel's wife in New York State who had attempted suicide by removing "all the woolen blankets and slow burning material off her bed," then "lying on a heavy straw mattress" and setting fire to it.2 The woman was "a horrible sight to behold" and was "literally roasted alive"; when she lifted her arm to shake hands with Kempster, "the flesh dropped from the bone, leaving the forearm absolutely bare."3 A certain end "was only a few hours away," "every moment was torture of the most horrible kind," and the patient "was shrieking with agony" while "waiting for death to relieve her from her suffering."4 The woman's personal physician indicated that he intended to inject her with only ten drops of morphine; Kempster, called in to consult, advised him to "fill the syringe"-and when the personal physician refused to take responsibility for such a decisive step, Kempster took hold of the needle and administered the fatal dose himself.5 Not only did he believe he had done right-a judgment allegedly confirmed by the priest who had been called in to administer the woman's last rites-but he expressed his firm intention, if necessary, to end actively the lives of other...