Anna S. Hall was a leading figure in the movement to legalize euthanasia in the United States during the first decade of the twentieth century. Miss Hall was the daughter and heir of noted Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall was an American Arctic explorer. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In the 1840s he married and drifted...

. Her letter-writing campaign attracted such prominent women as New York Times columnist Lurana Shelton and Co-Founder of Volunteers of America and former Salvation Army officer Maud Ballington Booth

Maud Ballington Booth

Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth later changed her name to Maud Ballington Booth, was an Salvation Army leader and co-founder of the Volunteers of America....

to the euthanasia cause. As a result of her efforts, the Ohio state legislature came within 54 votes of legalizing the practice in 1906.