Posted on 06/04/2011 3:43:04 PM PDT by NYer
DETROIT, Michigan, June 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Jack Kevorkian, known by many as “Dr. Death” for his role in helping over 100 people commit suicide, died early Friday morning in Detroit.
Kevorkian’s lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, told the Detroit Free Press that the infamous euthanasiast appears to have suffered a pulmonary thrombosis after a blood clot in his leg broke free and became lodged in his heart.
He had been hospitalized at Detroit’s Beaumont Hospital about two weeks ago with kidney and heart problems.
Kevorkian, who killed or assisted in the death of about 130 people, was released in 2007 after eight years for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. He had given Youk the lethal injection himself, and, in a videotape of Youk’s death, dared authorities to try to convict him.
He was released early from a 10-25 year sentence amidst claims of extremely poor health and that he had only a year to live.
Once out of jail, however, he continued his campaign for assisted suicide with high-profile speeches, for which he commanded considerable speaking fees. For a 2007 speech at Florida University he was reportedly paid $50,000.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, offered his condolences to Kevorkian’s family. “We recognize that this is the ending of the life of a man. We always take that with reverence,” he said.
At the same time, he said, “It’s important to our culture to remember who he actually was,” noting that the euthanasia lobby has attempted to redefine Kevorkian’s image in recent years. In particular, Kevorkian was the subject of favorable biopic last year starring Al Pacino called “You Don’t Know Jack”.
Despite claims that his murders were motivated by compassion, Kevorkian once described the alleviation of his victims’ suffering as “a first step, an early distasteful professional obligation” to get a license for human experimentation. He was open about his desire to obtain organs for transplantation and experimentation. He even took the kidneys of one victim to a press conference where he offered them “first come, first served.”
He criticized assisted suicide laws in states like Oregon and Montana for restricting the deadly practice to patients who are terminally ill. About 70% of his victims were merely disabled and five were found to be healthy after autopsies were performed.
Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said his organization is praying for Kevorkian’s soul. “We renew our commitment to proclaim that life is better than death,” he said. “Every life has burdens. When we respond to the call to bear one another’s burdens, then we close the door to despair. Those who promote the so-called ‘right to die’ are heralds of despair. We, on the other hand, are heralds of hope.”
“And as for the ‘right to die,” I say, ‘Don’t worry – you won’t miss out on it.’“
As you wish.
Did he die again today?
Or did you not see the 10 other threads from yesterday?
An excellent response to the culture of death.
Hi, metmom! :)
I am having a little problem understanding what he means. He refers to responding to the call. What does that mean?
"“Every life has burdens. When we respond to the call to bear one another’s burdens, then we close the door to despair."
So by “the government staying out of it” you have to mean “let’s pass laws permitting pharmacists to prescibe lethal drugs to kill people, and laws permitting physicians to give said lethal drugs to patients in order to cause their deaths, and laws permitting nurses or other medical people to help administer said lethal drugs to patients”.
Somehow that doesn’t seem like “leaving the government out of it” to me.
That's right the government should stay out of it. No sanctioning it by the government. No making murder legal.
The person who takes his own life answers to God for it. Nobody else should be involved and thereby become a murderer. No one person has the right to weigh another down with having that to answer to God for.
Nothing is stopping anyone from taking their own life but it is unconscionable to ask another person to become a murderer for their own convenience.
The time of a person's death is up to God. Period. Not God and man, just God.
This poster is always abrasive and confrontational.
But then, I’m so old fashioned and in favor of Constitutional government that my POV is that the government and the medical profession should stay out of the killing business, other than legal executions for capital crimes.
Please post where I have been abrasive and confrontational. Thank you.
Why should she answer your question when you didn’t answer hers first?
If you want an answer, do the courtesy of returning the same. There are far too many trolls on this forum who do nothing but stir the pot and never disclose their positions, likely for obvious reasons.
In case you missed this, noob, FR is a pro-God, pro-life site.
One more time: FR’s God-given Life & Liberty constitutional conservative activism agenda!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
I wasn’t aware of that. Thank you.
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And thank goodness for that.
Uh, I answered her first question.
Then, please, go back to my first response to t and post it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“My purpose in adding to that list is to encourage all freepers to pray for the immortal soul of a man who lost his compass.”
Time is finite, and there is only so much one can do. With respect for your motives - and I am sincere in both my respect and alternative plan - I would rather devote intercessory prayers on behalf of Genghis Khan, an extraordinary man who lifted his people from squalor to majesty, and who laid waste the north eastern quadrant of the Islamic world.
“Did he die again today?
Or did you not see the 10 other threads from yesterday?”
OP presents and entirely different angle, and one which is thought provoking.
Jewish tradition requires us to say only good about the dead.
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He’s dead. Good.
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