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.
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*.
For those interested, Dr. Death is interviewed on CBS 60 Minutes Sun. night 06/03/07. I just might watch — kinda like a train wreck, you don’t really want to see it but you just can’t keep away.
“the Dutch accept assisted suicide for depressed, suicidal psychotherapy patients who do not respond quickly to treatment”
-Hebert Hendlin, New York City psychiatrist and executive director of the American Suicide Foundation
http://tinyurl.com/2xkxjp
Doctors said they had the most difficulty dealing with requests from patients who wanted to die because their lives had become devoid of meaning, not because they were undergoing unbearable pain or suffering.
http://www.chninternational.com/belgian_zurich_eu_.htm
The San Fransico Chronicle lists pages of examples of depression-related assisted-suicides via internet & other assisted-suicide organizations. I’m not going to include the link on this one. But here’s an example:
“There, Gonzales found people who told her that suicide was an acceptable way to end her despair, and who gave her instructions on how to obtain a lethal dose of potassium cyanide and mix it into a deadly cocktail.” (Which she did.)
Then there’s Dr. K’s infamous cases of misdiagnosis:
-Judith Curren, 42, from Pembroke, MA; no physical disease found, reportedly had chronic fatigue syndrome and depression; died 8/15/96 by lethal injection.
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9608/17/kevorkian/
-Rebecca Badger, 39, from Goleta, CA; no physical disease found, had depression; died 7/9/96 by lethal injection.
http://tinyurl.com/2qsqtj
I’m sure all these poor people would have all changed their minds about this sort of thing if only they had the benefit of Mr. Fusion’s definition of assisted suicide.
Bonus: “The most alarming concern has been the documentation of several thousand cases a year in which patients who have not given their consent have their lives ended by physicians.”
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p040201b.html
RBG
President
Morans-r-Us
can I add, something….
Please…
REALLY, please…..
If a person does not see an end, to their misery….
depression or pain….
can they NOT ask for alittle assistance.??
Im sorry, I have seen a few DIE….And many times it AINT easy..
Ever see someone EATEN by cancer??
Ever see someone PRAY for death??
#33, yes, and it was my mother, who wasted away with horribly painful cancer for a whole year. She wanted assisted suicide, and her doctor even tried to help by prescribing far too many painkillers – but none of us had the courage to help her die – knowing what would become of our lives if we did. I couldn’t take the risk of being jailed with my own child on the way.
Doesn’t the right to life imply the right to die? Doesn’t the right to liberty imply the right to freedom from life? Doesn’t the right to pursuit of happiness imply the right to pursue it right into death?
I have a physician friend who will prescribe a needed medicine but then look his end-stage patient in the eye and say, “Whatever you do, don’t take that whole bottle because it will be lethal.”
RBG