Posted on 06/14/2006 3:24:56 PM PDT by SJackson
A very sick 78-year-old doctor is dying in a Michigan prison, an anachronism left over from the 20th century. Should we let him die in prison, or do we have the decency to say, "Enough is enough. Release him and let him die at home"?
The doctor is Jack Kevorkian, who was sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in Michigan's Lakeland Correctional Facility for Men. He traded his freedom for openly, shamelessly touting what he called our "right to die with dignity." He'd spent the 10 prior years brashly, illegally helping 130 terminally ill people end excruciatingly painful lives.
After 10 years in prison, he finally comes up for parole the middle of next year. But his friends tell me he may not live until then.
To be honest, I had forgotten all about Dr. Kevorkian's long fight for death with dignity. After I made sure to sign my own "do not resuscitate" and "no heroic measures" directives, his plight slipped my mind. Then I got a note from the daughter of an old high school friend. Though unrelated to Dr. Kevorkian, her last name is the same. Often asked, "Are you related?" it led her to learn about this forgotten, dying man. Appalled at his frailness, she is backing a petition for the doctor's release.
When Dr. Kevorkian practiced in the 1980s, great pain was still a given endured stoically in childbirth, in accidents, in mental and physical illness, in death. At the end of life, assisted death was only ever OK for animals. It was outspoken, unflinching Dr. Kevorkian who forced us all to consider, "Do our parents have the right to a dignified death when there's no cure and only agony ahead? Or does anyone, even a doctor, have the right to help a sufferer end his or her own life?"
The debate over end-of-life options isn't resolved yet. Assisted suicide is still criminal in 44 states, including Wisconsin. Only in Oregon and Ohio is it explicitly legal. (Despite a push by the Bush team, the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld Oregon's law, which sheltered 246 terminally ill Oregonians in its first eight years. Oregon, incidentally, has the lowest hospital death rate in the nation and the highest rate of people who are allowed to die at home. Oregon Hospice Association CEO Ann Jackson feels it's at least partly due to the fact that Oregonians can choose to die with dignity.)
Death is still an unpopular subject, despite public support for Terri Schiavo's right to die. But at least now doctors and hospitals urge us all to provide legal end-of-life do-not-resuscitate and no-heroic-measures directives. If you've ever been grateful that a loved one got you off the hook by "having it in writing," it's partly stubborn, crusading old Dr. Kevorkian you can thank.
Kevorkian antagonized a lot of people with his in-your-face flaunting of the "Do not kill no matter what" mandate. He thinks it was his crusading political and legal attacks that made Michigan throw away the key. "The government knows I'm not a criminal. The parole board knows I'm not a criminal. The judge knows I'm not a criminal." Yet he's sure: "I'll die in prison. There is nothing anyone can do. The public has no power."
Now that his 5-foot-8-inch frame is down to 114 pounds, do we still have anything to fear from Dr. Kevorkian? Or do you think he should be released to die at home?
Love him or hate him, if you think enough is enough, do add your signature as I did to the petition for his release at the Web site www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/761877453.
Judi K-Turkel is a journalist and author based in Madison. Published: June 13, 2006
I think the key word here is "veterans as in Tampa VETERANS hospital.
I have heard horror stories from patients that would Stephen King outta business.
What goes around, comes around.
(2) Granholm is never going to commute Dr. Death's sentence, and risk looking weak on crime/prison/sentences.
(3) Kevorkian's spokesman has stated Dr. Death will renew his promotion of euthanasia if granted early release:
(ABCNews.com) -- "While Kevorkian stands firmly by the cause of physician-assisted suicide, his lawyer said he would promote the movement by speaking out or writing, not by helping out in any more suicides.
"At this point, he would never perform it again," Morganroth said. "But he certainly would work towards getting it legalized wherever possible."
(4) The Conservative First Rule - Preserve Life. Thusly make sure Dr. Death's Hep C is treated to the absolute fullest extent possible - in prison.
(5) Kevorkian will live out his life in prison.
Lol! I suppose this is what the definition of ironic is, isn't it?
Didn't he get to take one of his death machines with him?
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
It's not about politics. It's about TRUTH. It's about belief in an omnipotent Creator.
Politics, and the way it is practiced today is one of the main causes of our moral decline. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Our country's founding documents, the basis for who we are as a nation recognize this truth. To forget it, to take the God-given right granted to the people and to try to usurp those powers which are rightly God's can lead only to our eventual death.
This is what Conservatism is all about.
You are welcome. Your situation with your father is a lot different and deserving of compassion as well as action. I don't think it is related in any way to this man or to what he did to the people who sought his services. From what I have read, they were years from death, not days.
People like your father should be releived of their suffering even if it means advancing death by hours or days. I find no conflict with their Hypocratic Oath.
Point taken.
I was speaking in the context of coalition politics, and not whether some things are more important than politics.
Parole in mid-2007. Let 'im wait. If he exits with toe tag so be it.
It ain't the doctor but Uncle Sam in many cases. Seems the Feds are bent that as many as possible will go to heaven virtuous, untainted by any addiction and purified by much suffering.
I wonder how much the fed involvement was fought by the doctors. Like they wanted to shift the blame. Just speculating.
The Fed stuff is an oligarchy picked by inbred Demopublican politics. If they were obligated to take a vote of American doctors at large, drug policy would be much more, pardon the term, liberal.
You are probably right.
Interesting that old Dr. K NOW doesn't want to die.
Facing the same thing he demanded the courts REQUIRE that he be allowed to give others.
may the Lord have mercy on his soul, but ...... Dr. K MUST ask for forgiveness first. And I really wonder if his hate-filled, Satan-directed life will allow him that.
BTW I am quite anti-suicide, but I'm not averse to the idea of pushing pain remedies "almost" to the brink (require close watching) if the patient is still complaining about severe pain and is within days of expected expiration. What's the worst, we get a miracle recovery and the patient has to be on someting like methadone the rest of his life.
It is hilarious when many people who support Kevorkian also oppose the death penalty (and favor abortion).
If you are going to line up on these issues, please at least be consistent.
If someone supports abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty, at least they are consistent.
If someone supports the death penalty, but not the other two, at least they support life for the innocent and death for the guilty (and more than likely, they would oppose the death penalty, but fear that Dukakis will release the guilty serving life in prison).
If someone supports abortion and/or assisted suicide while opposing the death penalty, that in my mind makes absolutely no sense.
If someone opposes all three, like I do, all we have to do is make sure no one puts Dukakis back in charge of anything.
I'm on the same page. I see this as 'an end of suffering at the end of life issue' not something to be used for 'early out' suicide even though 'enough' morphine will kill the patient hours or days earlier.
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