"Thou shalt not kill" is a precept as deeply engraven on the human heart
by reason itself as it was on the stone tables of the Ten Commandments
by Revelation.

So far we have chiefly considered murder as a violation of man's right
to his life. We must now turn our attention to God's right, which the
murderer violates. It may indeed happen that a man willingly resigns
his right to live, that he is tired of life, and longs and implores for
some one to take it away. Can you then do it? You cannot. His life does
not belong to him alone, but to God also, and to God principally; if you
destroy it, you violate God's right, and you will have to settle with
Him. God wills this man to live and serve Him, if it were only by
patient endurance of his sufferings.

For a man may be much ennobled and perfected by the practice of patience
under pain and agony. Some of the noblest characters of history are most
glorious for such endurance. The suicide rejects this greatness; he robs
God of service and glory, he rebels against his Creator. Even Plato of
old understood the baseness of suicide, when he wrote in his dialogue
called "Phædon" that a man in this world is like a soldier stationed on
guard; he must hold his post as long as his commander requires it; to
desert it is cowardice and treachery; thus, he says, suicide is a
grievous crime.

This being so, can a Doctor, or any other man, ever presume to
contribute his share to the shortening of a person's life by aiding him
to commit suicide? We must emphatically say No, even though the patient
should desire death: the Doctor cannot, in any case, lend his
assistance to violate the right and the law of the Creator: "Thou shalt
not kill."