Physician-assisted suicide

He was said to be among the most brilliant surgeons of his time. He was one of the first in the United States to adopt Lister's technique of antisepsis; he was among the early workers in brain surgery and one of the first to recognize duodenal ulcer as a pathologic entity. He was the earliest to advocate appendicostomy. His operation for carcinoma of the rectum, a more practical modification of the procedure described by Maunsell (which was recently presented in this section*) is described in the classic article here reproduced. Weir went on to become president of the American Surgical Association, New York Surgical Society, and New York Academy of Medicine. He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and was one of five surgeons so honored by the American College of Surgeons at its first convocation. He died April 6, 1927, at the age of 89. -