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Assisted dying

A Picture of English life under Queen Mary Tudor 1550

Translated in 1953 by CV Malfatti

This manuscript circa 1550 contains the following interesting account of assisted dying!
 “There is also another merciful treatment that they are accustomed to use on sick people, as follows; when anyone is given up by doctors and there is no remedy for his illness, the nearest relatives take a pillow, put it on the patient’s throat and sit on it, thus causing him to be suffocated this is done by the father to the son as well as by the sons of the father, and, as they have full faith in the doctor’s judgement, that the patient cannot be saved from suffering in any other way they think to please God by freeing him from pain, this kind of merciful action is not to be found among all sorts of people, but only among those of low standing in certain parts of the country remote from the sea, where some barbarous customs still persist owing to their being little contact with the outside world.”
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