"He would become unconscious and in three, or possibly four, hours he would die."
"You'd call that murder?"
"That is the only name for it as the law stands."
"You won't do that?"
"No, Mr. Baskerville. I wish I could help him. But, in a word, I have no power to do so."
"Is it because you think 'twould be a wrong thing, or because you know 'tis unlawful?" asked the elder. "You might say 'twas impertinent to ask it, as it touches religion; but I'm ignorant and old, and want to know how it looks to the conscience of a learned man like you—you, that have been educated in all manner of deep subjects and the secrets of life."
The doctor reflected. He was experienced and efficient; but like many other professional men, he had refused his reason any entrance into the arcanum of his religious opinions. These were of the customary nebulous character, based on tradition, on convention, on the necessity for pleasing all in a general practice, on the murmur of a mother's voice in his childhood.
"I am a Christian," he said. "And I think it wrong to lessen by one moment the appointed life of any man."
"But not wrong to lengthen it?"
"That we cannot do."