--- title: Right to Die: Here's What Albert Einstein Thought description: The issue of whether suffering people should be able to control their own deaths has been debated for centuries canonical: https://time.com/4062050/einstein-right-to-die/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-05T21:30:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:21.960Z article:section: History og:title: Here's What Albert Einstein Thought About the Right to Die og:description: The debate over the right to die has been going on for centuries og:url: https://time.com/4062050/einstein-right-to-die/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47390c6cba817e5/698866ed3c16396e0e45a15b/gettyimages-128614304.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2761 og:image:height: 1553 og:image:alt: 128614304 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Albert Einstein Thought About the Right to Die twitter:description: The debate over the right to die has been going on for centuries twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47390c6cba817e5/698866ed3c16396e0e45a15b/gettyimages-128614304.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Albert Einstein Thought About the Right to Die > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Oct 5, 2015 9:30 PM UTC  Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Albert Einstein (1879-1955). SCIENCE SOURCE—Getty Images/Photo Researchers RM  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Oct 5, 2015 9:30 PM UTC California Governor Jerry Brown [signed right-to-die legislation into law](http://time.com/4061941/california-governor-right-to-die-assisted-suicide-bill/) on Monday, but the issue of whether suffering people should be able to control their own deaths has been debated for centuries. Take, for example, this [1929 TIME story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1929-11-18/page/31/) about a son and his dead mother. In 1929, a Frenchman named Richard Corbett shot his mother. She was dying of cancer, doctors said there was no hope for her, and he described her life as “suffering torture,” but he was tried for her murder nonetheless. A jury found him not guilty and, perhaps sensing that this debate would rage for at least another 80 years, TIME staffers sought comment and opinions from the major thinkers of the day. Here’s what Albert Einstein had to say: “I approve unqualifiedly the action of Richard Corbett, and I am happy in his acquittal by the French court, where a healthy feeling for the spirit of justice triumphed over the dead letter of the law.” George Bernard Shaw didn’t agree: “It is impossible to have a state of affairs in which one person may shoot another and then allege it was a sort of suicide by deputy. Suicide cannot be permitted by deputy.” Other luminaries of the time also debated the issue, some of whom are less familiar to our modern audiences. But rest assured: as long as people have been living and dying, there have been debates about how to do both. ### Christian Werner in Post-War Iraq: A Photographer Investigates a Health Crisis   Apr. 18, 2012\. Fallujah. A man holds his daughter, who became sick from swallowing dust from the road after the war in 2003. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 17, 2012\. Baghdad. A family passes a car full of bullet holes. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 18, 2012\. Fallujah. An elderly woman holds her granddaughter's hand inside an incubator in the neonatal ward of the General Hospital. The child was born with leukemia and cerebral tumors. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 18, 2012\. Baghdad. Three children clean a grave with water from a battered canister at a cemetery. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 18, 2012\. Baghdad. A woman prays at the cemetery for her dead son. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 19, 2012\. Hurriya District, Baghdad. A woman looks out the window of her house riddled with bullet holes. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 21, 2012\. Basra. A few obsolete tanks, left over from the fighting, near the airport. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 21, 2012\. Basra. A horse cart drives along the tracks on the outskirts of the city. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 21, 2012\. Basra. Two boys by the grave of a young girl in the children's cemetery. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 22, 2012\. Basra. The bodies of dead children receive a ritual washing in a room at the children's cemetery before they are buried. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 22, 2012\. Basra. The hand of a stillborn baby is wrapped in linen cloth. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 23, 2012\. Basra. An old man prays for his grandson, who suffers from leukemia, inside the Children's Hospital. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 23, 2012\. Basra. An oncologist examines a young boy with cerebral tumors in the Children's Hospital. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 24, 2012\. Basra. A young boy, who suffers from a cerebral tumor, is unable to use his legs or hands despite several operations. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 24, 2012\. Basra. An infant girl, who suffers from leukemia and two different length legs, lies on the floor in pain. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 24, 2012\. Basra. New patients receive intravenous pain medication at the leukemia ward of the Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 24, 2012\. Basra. An elderly woman carries the linen-wrapped body of a stillborn baby at the children’s cemetery. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Apr. 23, 2012\. Basra. A man holds his four-year-old daughter, who was born with a deformed back and water in her head, and who doctors have given a slim chance of survival. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Oct. 24, 2012\. Basra. Three members of one family, all of whom were were born with an eye mutation, sit for a portrait. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Oct. 22, 2012\. Basra. An undertaker prays for a stillborn boy who is wrapped in linen cloth before his burial at the children's cemetery. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Oct. 23, 2012\. Basra. A boy sick with cancer and a tumor behind an eye rests in the Children's Hospital. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Oct. 23, 2012\. Basra. A section of graves in the children's cemetery. Christian Werner—laif/Redux  Oct. 24, 2012\. Near Basra. A 10-year-old boy receives dialysis at a hospital as his mother prays and rests her hand on his head. A large portion of a tumor on his shoulder was removed the day earlier. 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