DAVID Aaronovitch attributes the oft-quoted words about not striving officiously to keep alive to Hippocrates (Section 2, 22 March).
The lines in fact come from Arthur Hugh Clough's A Modern Dialogue and are to be interpreted (as a qualification "but need not strive officiously to keep alive" to the commandment "thou shalt not kill") in a sly and negative manner.
Malcolm Jackson
London SE22
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