When an illness is incurable and painful, and makes useful activity impossible, it is mere cruelty to prolong life; at any rate if the sufferer is anxious to die, or has lost his reason. The prolongation of his life can be neither a happiness to himself nor a benefit to society, and is therefore equally unjustified from the standpoint of the individual and from that of the community.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher

“On Euthanasia,” New York American (1934-01-01)
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