Notes on Recent Crime
| Published date | 01 April 1935 |
| Date | 01 April 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800201 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
VOL.
VIII. No. 2
APRIL-JUNE
1935
Notes on Recent Crime
IN
an old Victorian case three men and a boy were in a
small boat without provisions after ashipwreck and,
to avoid all of
them
dying of starvation, the three men killed
and ate
the
boy.
They
were convicted and sentenced to
death for murder, though
not
unnaturally they were reprieved
and did not serve a long period of their sentences. English
law will not tolerate any deliberate killing by a sane person,
save in legitimate self-defence of life or property, using no
more force than is necessary.
This
principle has been strikingly
illustrated by the case of Mrs. Brownhill, tried before
Goddard J., at Leeds Assizes. She killed her son, a hopeless
imbecile aged 30, quite painlessly by placing a gas
tube
in
his mouth after giving him one
hundred
aspirins. She did it
" in
mercy",
because she had to undergo an operation, from
which she might not recover, and there would be nobody to
look after him. She had been adevoted mother, sacrificing
everything for a son whose life was described as " a veritahle
living death ".
"N
0person in this country has the right to
take the life of any other human being, because he or she
thinks it is better for
them
to die," said the Judge. Conviction
and sentence followed, though, of course, a reprieve was
granted and release, one assumes, will not long be delayed.
Police, judge,
jury
did their bare, if distasteful, duty. Legalized
euthanasia may come, but, if it does, it will have to be guarded
by very stringent provisions to prevent
abuse;
euthanasia
by private judgment cannot be tolerated.
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