Posted on 06/03/2011 10:50:23 AM PDT by SmithL
Jack Kevorkian and his supporters portrayed the death doc as a compassionate man who offered "death with dignity" to individuals suffering from a poor quality of life. I always saw him as a man who preyed on vulnerable individuals by telling them their lives weren't worth living -- as I watched Kevorkian survive over the years, despite medical problems that dwarfed those of many of his victims.
In 2007, I wrote:
Fans of Kevorkian ought to be asking themselves: In that the ailing Kevorkian is in worse physical shape than many of the people whose lives he helped snuff out, why hasn't the death doc used his vaunted "medicide" on himself? . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
So many things in life are like that, being easily misused.
Gun ownership can be misused.
Drinking alcohol can be misused.
Speech can be misused.
But the American Way (other than Nanny-Staters) is not to jump onto that slippery slope screaming, "You don't have the right to run your own life!"
The American Way is to protect against the possibility of misuse, while also protecting freedom.
I think some Nanny-Staters are truly disappointed that Oregon hasn't developed into the mass-suicide haven they predicted.
If I get that way, I’ve told Mrs BwanaNdege to get me a couch down by the lake, like Burgess Meredith had in “Grumpier Old Men”’
Leave me there with my fishing tackle, and maybe some bait.
Come back in the Spring, sweep up what’s left of me, put it in a pine box, say a few kind words over the remains, smile at the good memories, please forget the bad.
Oh, maybe bury me with a box of red wigglers to give them a head start. I fugure that I owe them something for all the fishing I’ve done.
I won’t be in that box!
As romantic as that scene was, i believe most times than not, it's a painful and horrible thing to be left alone if you plan on whithering away such as that. To each their own.
I wouldn't mind your scenario but throw in a heart stopper in my glass of sweet tea. :)
Kevorkian was a pathologist when he was still a practicing physician. Many of us suspected that he tired of dealing with the already dead, and felt cheated by not being able to observe the process of dying and the actual passage, thus leading to his ghoulish practice of creating deaths so he could be present at the precise moment.
He was truly twisted.
Speak for yourself. I would never murder a fellow human being. When given the opportunity, I always choose to care for them.
Speaking of irony, the top-of-hour radio news had these two stories back-to-back. First, they announced the death of Kevorkian. Then it was announced that some French doctors had developed a new artifical, implantable heart. They stated that if the new heart could be used to extend lives six months, it would be a success.
I was saddened to hear of the death of James Arness. I don't know how many hours I've spent in front of a TV watching Gunsmoke.
As far as the other death of the day, the world is a better place without Kevorkian.
He lived so long because of his common sense, his skills as a physician, hisfeelings for his fellow man, his understanding that the patient comes first, his empathy for the dying, his disgust with the greedy medical profession, his belief that it is a physician’s duty to ease pain and end - if possible - suffering, and the bedrock conviction that eventually we all die. Some - if he was requested to assist - much less painfully and far better off economically - than others.
I dealt with this with my Mom, she decided she wanted to forego chemo and go into hospice care, perhaps chemo would have given her another year, but she decided she didn’t want to drag it out. So we just made her final days are comfortable as possible, and let things run their course. That’s a big difference than actively hastening ones’ demise as Kervorkian did.
Because, only the good die young.
Duty to die is what Obamacare will become. Individuals and families should most likely be able to make up thier own minds, As long as government is not involved.
I just want to go like my Grandfather did, peacefully in my sleep, unlike the screaming passengers in his car.
Pathetic, isn’t it? We extend more compassion to our animals, than we do our fellow human beings.
There are some distinct differences:
1. Animals DO NOT have souls. The Bible permits the killing of animals, it does not permit the killing of humans for the conditions you mentioned.
2. Animals cannot communicate levels and locations of pain as humans can, this makes palliative care more difficult.
Since the beginning of time people have euthanized animals that are dying and in pain, the notion that it was okay to euthanize humans is only a few decades old and pushed by the leftist culture of death.
It's important to note that even the Nazis didn't euthanize anyone that they considered to be a human being.
Is that sarcasm?
I, myself, have been hospitalized on numerous occasions, but am "still kickin'". My wonderful Dad was not so fortunate having been killed by colon cancer after a long and extraordinarily expensive illness.
No...it was not sarcasm, but an opinion based on what has been, to date, a very long life.
If it does not "mesh" with your opinion, so be it.
It's also important to note that they tried to cover up the fact that they were euthanizing people. Why would they try to cover it up if they didn't know it was wrong? Only a handful of them were stupid enough to brag about it. Here are some of them.
Another problem I have is the "right to die" could end up being twisted by the government into the "duty to die" real quickly.
For terminally ill patients who are suffering I can understand the desire to have the ability to end that suffering. But, that is a decision which should never be in the hands of a physician or the government.
A terminally ill person can sign a living will and health care proxy thereby dictating what treatment, if any, that individual wishes to receive (including pain medication.)
To compare euthanizing an animal to the murder of a human is ridiculous.
I don’t want to suffer in my last days, but a problem that I see with people is that they want everything easy. No one is willing to endure the cross that each of us must bear. Life can be cruel, but it is in receiving the beauty of life that we graciously accept our fate. The real reward is in our next life.
That’s frightening, assuming that your relatives share your perspective.
In recent years, some of the medical schools have been pushing the idea that the purpose of medicine is to relieve suffering as quickly and efficiently as possible, even if that means killing the patient rather than providing them with medical care. This attitude has severely harmed our medical system.
He was a MURDERER who killed people who weren't even dying and along the way violated every tenet of the Hippocratic Oath.
Plenty of monsters have lived long lives, look at Castro.
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