Lord Horder: Prolong Life, Not Dying

I was pleased to discover that the archive of the BMJ is freely available in digital format all the back to 1857.  In these archives I was pleased to find the following quote attributed to Thomas Horder, physician to several British kings and prime ministers.



"It is the duty of a doctor to prolong life and it is not his duty to prolong the act of dying."



Lord Horder apparently made this remark in a speech before the House of Lords when it was considering a voluntary euthanasia bill in 1936.