Posted on 05/26/2006 10:37:54 AM PDT by Abathar
Today, on his 78th birthday, Jack Kevorkian, the man known as "Dr. Death," is slowly dying in prison.
And, according to his lawyer, Kevorkian seems to have second thoughts about helping people die.
For years, Kevorkian was the center of a national debate around the highly controversial questions surrounding physician-assisted suicide or "mercy killing:" Do the terminally ill have the right to choose when and how they die? Do doctors have the ability, even an obligation, to help them die as they choose?
Now, as he sits in jail, Kevorkian may have had a change of heart — not about his dedication to the "death with dignity" movement, but on how he went about promoting it.
Specifically, he questions the more than 100 suicides he said he assisted throughout the 1990s. One assisted suicide — the death of Lou Gehrig's disease patient Thomas Youk, which was taped and broadcast on "60 Minutes" in 1998 — earned him a prison sentence of 15 years to 20 years for second degree murder.
"He did what he did, and it brought it to public awareness [of physician-assisted suicide]," said Kevorkian's attorney, Mayer Morganroth. "He now realizes that having performed it when it was against the law, wasn't the, probably, appropriate way to go about it. … What he should have done was work towards its legalization verbally. … Pursuing that cause, and not performing it because it still was against the law."
'He Gets Depressed at Times'
Less than a week ago, Morganroth publicly stated that doctors had told Kevorkian he had less than a year to live.
Kevorkian suffers from Hepatitis C, which he contracted during service in Vietnam. Morganroth said Kevorkian's liver enzyme levels were three to four times above normal — a clear signal his liver was failing.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
At the risk of being incredibly flamed...
When my mother was dying a most cruel and painful death from cancer, the one comment I remember making was that Dr. Kavorkian didn't seem like such a bad fellow.
The moral judgement cast by alot of Freepers is scary. If YOU were the one in the long painful journey till death, you wouldn't want someone else out living life dictating how you decided to end it in a painfree way. I think Terri Schiavo was murdered, she did not state her desire. I do think if I had Lou Gehrigs or Huntington (is that the name of it where you just freeze up for endless years?)Disease I would like to have a painless way to go. And it ticks me off that the moral police of FR would have a say so in that decision.
Deceitful-ABC News-headline-on-Kevorkian ping....
Gee maybe he will bag his own head and end it all.
Well then someone should help him kill himself. That is what he did, help people kill themselves when they were depressed.
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
Dying 'Dr. Death' Has Second Thoughts About Assisting Suicides
Kevorkian is responsible for over 100 deaths, he deserves no sympathy from anybody.
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To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FReepMail wagglebee.
"Yep. But still sad to see such a noble mule used to illustrate the party of DEATH. Their symbol should be a parsnip, or a Brussels sprout, or something REEEEELY nasty..."
A booger.
Their symbol should be a booger.
"The Democratic Party: picked by the people!"
Or better still:
A booger, with the slogan:
"The Democratic Party: Pick Us in 2006!"
Thank you for posting the true Christian perspective on this situation. Hating Kevorkian and wishing him eternal punishment is easy and the prospect of his suffering is almost enjoyable to the natural human heart, but it is also hateful and abhorrent in God's eyes.
In the eyes of God, Kevorkian is no more or less a sinner than myself or any other poster on this thread. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" The only difference between the guilt of Kevorkian and my own is that mine was taken away when I obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ by confessing him as Lord and placing my faith in him and his atoning death, burial, and resurrection for my sin. The very moment I did that my sin was accounted to Jesus and his perfect righteousness was credited to me.
Jesus also loves Jack Kevorkian so much that he died for him. Kevorkian could have his sins accounted to Jesus and Jesus righteousness credited to him if he would bow the knee in humble repentance to Jesus Christ as Lord and and ask him for salvation by God's grace through faith. I pray that the Holy Spirit of God will lead him to do just that before he dies, but no one can do it for him.
What a wonderful and gracious God Jesus is that he would die by a hideous Roman crucifixion so that sinful, rebellious, unGodly men and women like Kevorkian and myself can have eternal life and fellowship with Him instead of the eternal death that we deserve. The Apostle Paul wrote under divine inspiration,
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
I am that sinner once condemned to death, and yet Christ died in my place so that now I may live forever. How can I wish condemnation on another sinner like myself when I have been wholly forgiven of my own evil, filthy, vile, selfish, rebellious deeds and thoughts, not because of my good deeds outweighing the evil, but by God's amazing grace through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ?
"And it ticks me off that the moral police of FR would have a say so in that decision."
Life is the most fundamental of all issues in law.
Of course everybody has to have a say-so, democratically, in what the law is that says when it can be taken and can't be. There has to be a rule, and it needs to be decided politically and apply to everybody.
I don't know whether to say, "Ewwww!" or "Yay!" so, "EwwwwYay!"
Never saw that POS movie.
I wonder about his time in VietNam too. Someone as twisted and death-fascinated as Dr K would have gotten noticed. Does anyone know where he served and with what branch and unit? There may still be people alive who would have interesting stories about him. I know that the people who worked with him in residency did.
I notice he isn't asking for assisted suicide for himself.
He will. He will turn his suicide into a media spectecle. That is why he wants to get out of prison. If he stays in prison, he will not get his big finale.
He will. He will turn his suicide into a media spectecle. That is why he wants to get out of prison. If he stays in prison, he will not get his big finale.
Culture of Death
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