Can we agree upon the following?
- As long as Kevorkian is a free citizen not subject to legal sanctions, not imprisoned nor under probation supervision, he is free to speak as he wishes. Same as anyone else who enjoys the first-amendment protection of free speech. Same as you or I.
- Any organization is free to choose to pay him to speak, or to choose not to. Same 1A protection. If the speaker fees are paid with taxpayer funds, then there if a good argument hat any Florida taxpayer has grounds to argue against.
- The Schindler family has at least as many free-speech rights as Kevorkian has. Kevorkian has a right to voice his opinion, and the Schnindlers have a right to voice theirs. Any organization has a right to book him to speak, and anyone has a right to tell them they shouldn’t.
So this is not a debate about rights. It is a debate about choices. Some group of people chose to book Kevorkian, and some other folks oppose that. There is no travesty here. This is the system working as it’s supposed to.
Independent of the above, I will note that Kevorkian is famous for helping people die — or killing people, if you prefer — who stated, clearly, that they wanted to die.That is is a different matter from people who were not able to form or express an intent. People like, for example, Terri Schiavo.
My understanding is that Kevorkian acted on informed consent. If I am mistaken, please enlighten me.
Thank you for this excellant clarifying post. You are correct..this is about choices..and I do agree he should not be paid,and certainly not with tax funds.
Your entire post is very articulate.
My understanding is that Kevorkian acted on informed consent.
Many of his victims were simply depressed, a person suffering from severe depression is demonstrably incapable of giving informed consent about their future. There have also been reports that at least one of his victims tried to back out once the procedure was started and that Dr. Death did not allow it.
If his "patients" were clinically depressed when they made the decision for suicide, they were non compis mentis and their consent was as valid as a consent signed by a guy tripping on acid.