PRINCIPLES 219

Answer: A gift meant primarily for our advantage aaid
subject to absolute ownership, I grant ; a gift meant primarily
for the giver's advantage, and subject to only use-ownership,
I deny.
N.B. Suicide is more than rejection, it is destruction of
life.
I. Hume argues thuswise. If we cannot interfere with the
course of nature to shorten life, we cannot interfere with the
course of nature to prolong it. Badem est contrariorum
ratio. Ergo, it would be wrong to push aside a falliag stone
that threatened destruction.
Answer: Use-ownership empowers and obliges us to pre-
serve or prolong our life. It vests us with no right to destroy
same. That is the exclusive prerogative of absolute owner-
ship. We are stewards, not proprietors.
J. It is lawful to choose a lesser evil for the purpose of
escaping a greater.
Answer: The saying has some force in question of phys-
ical evil, none in question of moral evil. In the case of self,
it can never become necessary to commit one sin to avoid
others. It is always quite possible to avoid all sin. In the
case of others, it would be highly wrong to commit one sin to
prevent them from committing a thousand. Moral evil is
never justified by good. The end never justifies the means.
Suicide would be the lesser evil only in the supposition that
it is not sinful. The smallest sin is a greater evil than phys-
ical evil of whatever magnitude.
K. Suicide is wrong because the man does himself an in-
justice. Nobody can do himself an injustice. "Volenti nulla
fit injuria.
