Jack Kevorkian, the man known as Dr Death and who helped the terminally ill to die, is due to be released from prison in the US state of Michigan.
Kevorkian was convicted in 1999 of the murder by injection of terminally ill Thomas Youk. A video of him dying was broadcast on television.
Kevorkian, 79, has served eight years of a 10-25 year sentence.
He has pledged not to counsel people on suicide but says he will continue to fight for the right to euthanasia. The elderly former pathologist insists that patients living in pain have the right to die.
A jury convicted Kevorkian of second-degree murder after watching the video of him injecting lethal drugs into Mr Youk. Kevorkian had sent the video for broadcast on the CBS show 60 Minutes.
He plans to return to the show in an interview on Sunday.
I believe I have the right to choose to die.
Our rights are irrelevant compared to the will of the Xian right. . .
Eideard – You don’t need to “believe” you have that right. You DO have that right. Just like I have the right to use grow and use marijuana.
Just because a government is using the threat of violence to restrict your rights doesn’t mean you don’t have the right.
I believe he would not be in jail if he had not pushed the plunger on the syringe on tape. If he had just set up an IV line, hooked up the syringe, and let the patient finish the job, he would never have gotten a murder conviction. There is enough support for euthanasia that he would never get a unanimous verdict.
Oh well, if I get a long, painful, and debilitating illness, you can bet that I will find a way to check out early. But both my parents went suddenly, so maybe I will get lucky, and croak will banging the ol lady.
Bad day for her though.
Don
Anyone who has ever explained to a child that they had to put the dog/cat to sleep to put him/her out of his/her misery was either lying or is living in a country where we treat our parents, grandparents, and other loved ones worse than we treat our pets.
Of course death is everyone’s right. Last I heard the death rate around here was still one per person anyway. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. Why prolong it, draw it out, and make it an even more miserable experience than it already is?
Further, the few, the loud, the fanatical religious wackos who are against euthanasia, are precisely the people that don’t even believe in death!! Why the f___ are they putting up such a stink about it?! When someone they love dies, they should celebrate their entry into heaven.
Personally, I believe in death. I do not fear it. I do not wish to rush it. At the same time though, I do not wish to live beyond any enjoyment into horrific suffering. I certainly don’t want someone pumping air through the meat that was once me until they’ve got all my money before finally pulling the damn plug. Yecch!!
I agree with Scott (#4). But I have never figured out why those who wish to end it all don’t just down a bottle of Tylenol. It is cheap, easily obtained without the need for a doctor, and AFAIK, 100% unstoppable.
Personally, I think I’d try a massive dose of heroin, but that is not as easily obtained.
Dave
Not sure why he wants to kill people so much. And he doesn’t just do terminally ill either. A ot of them are just old and depressed.
#6 – you’re absolutely right, as usual. He should follow the lead of our president and only kill furriners!
You only have the right to die if the government wants to kill you.
If you knew what it’s like being old and depressed, you would want to die too. Take it from me, I am older than most trees!
#4 – Personally, I believe in death.
Well, that’s at least a belief that can be proven. Let’s all start a religion! 🙂
#9 – Jägermeister,
Actually, though I really hate to admit it, it is actually provable only to the same extent that god is disprovable. When I say that I believe in death. I mean as something truly final. I expect to feel exactly the way I did prior to my conception after my death, i.e. not at all.
However, what I would say is that there is no evidence to support the claim that there is anything beyond death. So, in the absence of any shred of evidence to support an afterlife, I give that hypothesis the same credence that I give to The Great Pumpkin, Zeus, Tinkerbell, Elves, and the rest of the usual list of mythical creatures. But, I am anal-retentive enough to feel that I have to admit that absence of an afterlife is exactly as provable as the absence of a deity.
0. Eideard
Then let’s hope you never get temporarily depressed enough or metally disabled enough or poor enough or bored enough or pissed off with Bush enough to want to do that. We kinda like you around here.
RBG
Last time I checked with the actuarial tables + social security projections – not very long ago – they figure I’m good for about another 15 years.
Dr. K’s problem was the same as Timothy Leary’s. He grew a huge ego and tried to ride into fame on a big white horse, a hero. People who make a big social cause out of things that belong quietly in the background of an evolving society cause a lot more trouble than they cure. That they may be 100% right is irrelevant once they scare the bejebus out of the manipulable middle class and give the usual a**hole politicians another hot-button issue to posture about.
PS – That is one terrific graphic. Hee hee.
At my age, the contemplation of ‘the way to go’ has received serious consideration. Make sure you’ve got a valid living will and all your affairs in order right now, just in case. I ain’t goin’ out without a fight, but I’ve outlived too many dear friends and relatives that had long bouts with debilitating diseases, and I guarantee I’m not leaving this earth in some hospital bed withering away in pain for weeks or months. I’ve already got plan B for that scenario and I’m not leaving that way. I’m goin’ with Scotty.
#13 – Maybe… But thanks to Dr K., the right to die is an issue that almost all of us are aware of and many people believe in. It takes generations to change, but it would take longer without serious boat rockers.
As for Dr. Leary, I liked him quite a bit, but I’m pretty sure he was just goofy.
#13, TJ,
Very good point. Sometimes though, we do need martyrs.
The irony is Dr. K was released early because the state didn’t want to be saddled with all those expensive liver treatments for Dr. K’s hepatitis.
#15….BubbaRay…..you mean….you want to be shot into space and lost in the New Mexico desert????? 🙂
Seriously though, Oregon has the assisted suicide law and from what I gather, there hasn’t exactly been a rush to die. I think the whole thing is a bust. Might as well make it legal everywhere.
I remember when I was pretty young, maybe 5 or 6….we went back east to attend a funeral of an old Aunt. She was Serbian, and let me tell you, they knew how to send that lady off. I couldn’t understand how everyone could be so sad one minute and so damn happy the next. My parents explained that a lot of ethnic (and religious) groups believed that it was proper to be joyful that the deceased was free of earthly bonds and with God.
I kind of wonder, knowing this, why the Christian fundlementalists are so set against meeting their Lord?
joshua – they found Scotty’s capsule just about on the button where it was predicted to land. Just such an isolated spot it took a few extra days to get to it.
Doctor assisted suicide (formerly known as malpractice?) creeps me out and Kervorkian gives me the heebie jeebies.
Have you have heard that guy interviewed? He’s like an old Vincent Price character — all personally decaying and infatuated with the death of others, all too eager to help them. out.
Here’s my question about the issue: serious illness commonly triggers serious depression. If a depressed sick person requests to be killed be his/her doctor, are they being killed for their depression (which is treatable) or the serious disease? Shouldn’t physicians at least be required to treat the person for depression before they kill them?
21,
If they shoot the person full of happy juice before the act, then they will have filled that requirement.
Aw shit. I hope if I ever come down with some horrible incurable disease and don’t have the wherewithal to end things myself, that there’s somebody like Kevorkian out there. People who oppose this are just evil. They should watch somebody with ALS die, and see if they still believe in the “sanctity of life”. Argh.
Mr. Mustard,
I’m evil because I think doctors should not kill their patients.
Man, the world has flipped upside down!
For me, the depression issue is one of the most vexing.
If any patient can request to be killed and this must honored, then what about suicidal people suffering from depression? Do doctors just stop treating depression and help the patient commit suicide?
I guess so.
Since seriously ill people often experience serious depression, do doctors not treat the depress, but cater to the suicidal thoughts?
I guess so… according to the pro-suicidal advocates.
And if that bothers me, I guess it makes me evil! 🙂
So I wonder if the ailing Dr. K will put his gunny where his mouth is?
RBG
Folks, it’s better to keep the argument on the side of maybe or maybe not having some notion of a right to die (like you also need a right to eat or right to breathe or right to excrete – it’s a natural process guys), as opposed to what could happen in a societal degenerative period, where the argument becomes “duty to die”. Imagine that we manage to pass universal health care, and then some 20 to 40 years down the road it becomes overwhelmingly expensive to keep all of these ancient boomers and old gen Xer’s alive. They’ll be asking us to go voluntarily, and I want the protected right to say “NO”, even if I end up a crazed loon who wears adult diapers.
I think I tend to be on the same side here as you heathens on this point. But maybe there’s a way around it. We have legal ages for drinking, driving, marrying, running for office, etc. Why not a legal age to, no not commit suicide per se, but to use “illict” drugs, to own guns without a permit, to … you get the idea. After, say age 65, do whatever you want to yourself.
If you see this guy ( the doctor K ) coming over to your neighborhood , it is not Mr. Rogers coming.
Might be a good idea to leave promptly.
OK, morans,
Assisted suicide is for the terminally ill. Those who will die because of their illness. This does not include being chronically depressive. Some people, myself included, do not want to linger for days, weeks, or months in great pain. I don’t want expensive measures to keep me alive so my family can live in deeper debt. If I wish to die with some dignity, that is MY business. If you wish to linger on your death bed while some disease rots your body away from the inside, then that is your business.
#20…Moss….ohhhh…ok….the last little blurb I had read on it said they had *lost* him in the desert. Damn, there goes my joke.
If we allowed Doctors to give the kinds and amounts of pain medications that would actually aleviate the pain a lot of terminally ill people are suffering, then maybe people wouldn’t ask to die as often. If the goverment and the rightious don’t want people to choose their time of death, then at least legalize the f**king good stuff, so they can be in happy land until their natural death occurs. If Rush Limbaugh can have happy pills, then why can’t Grandma with terminal lung cancer or ALS. Oh, wait a minute, we wouldn’t want her to become addicted to that Bromptons cocktail and be a burden on society.
I believe the Oregon law requires 2 Doctors to certify the patient is terminal….not depressed Greg Allen. But, my usual qualifier on that…*at least I think thats how it works*.