Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Jun 3, 2011 at 7:00am
Jack Kevorkian has died:
Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide crusader, has died.
He died early Friday morning in a Michigan hospital, his lawyer said.
“It was peaceful. He didn’t feel a thing,” Mayer Morganroth told The Detroit Free Press.
Mr. Kevorkian, an 83-year-old retired pathologist, had been hospitalized for pneumonia and kidney problems.
The right-to-die advocate known as Dr. Death claimed participation in at least 130 assisted suicides in the 1990s.
Wherever one stands on euthanasia--and I think an outstandingly good, completely secular case may be made against loosening legal and social prohibitions against it--I suspect we'll all agree that this man liked killing people too much.
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Jun '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
I don't think he enjoyed killing. I don't think killing was his motivation. He thought he had a great simple solution to a complicated problem, and so why not solve your problem? "Problem fixed. You're welcome."
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
One of his fetishes was that he enjoyed looking into the eyes of the dying.
Jun '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
In many cases, what those eyes were saying is "thank you."
Jan '11
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
And then right after he told them that his patients skipped blithely out of his office, happy as clams and eager to go about the rest of their lives, now freed from all their previously unbearable burdens and cares.
Suicide is not a solution to one's problems. It is, rather, the final solution.
Jul '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
So we can presume that his "quality of life" remained high right up to the very end?
Jun '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Ajax Telamônios
And then right after he told them that his patients skipped blithely out of his office, happy as clams and eager to go about the rest of their lives, now freed from all their previously unbearable burdens and cares.
Suicide is not a solution to one's problems. It is, rather, the final solution. · Jun 3 at 7:17am
I don't agree that it's okay. I'm just trying to illustrate Kevorkian's thinking. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong. And his "patients" were eager to get the "treatment." The question is, were they ALL eager to go, or just the majority?" Did some families push the sick person towards that decision?
Aug '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
This photo of Kevorkian smiling next to his "suicide machine" is the epitome of creepy:
He does, indeed, seem to be enjoying himself.
May '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
He was a ghoul and did not serve nearly enough time for his murders. Several of his patients weren't terminally, or even painfully, ill--just suicidal. As noted above, death is final and its choice is inherently irrational. Most, if not all, of his victims needed other forms of therapy, particularly psychological, long before resorting to his "treatment."
May '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Dilbert had some great idea of what not do when at a dinner party with Dr Kevorkian.
"I wonder if Dr. Kervorkian has trouble entertaining guests at home. I can imagine this scene playing itself out a lot:
Dr. Kervorkian: “Carl, you look tired. Can I get you a beverage?”
Carl: “NO! Nothing! I’m good!” "
I hope this sometime Mengele gets what he deserves in the next life, and I say that as someone who had a sister with profound cerebral palsy , and watched her suffering for 27yrs. Dr K was too quick to inject and poison, with an inflated sense of godlike mastery over others that was frequently self-righteous and narcissistic.
Jun '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
I wish people could get this worked up over abortion.
May '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
The good news is I found you a doctor who makes house calls. The bad news is it's Dr. Kevorkian.
Jul '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
At least his victims volunteered, unlike Someone else.
Feb '11
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
I'd like to hear that "austoundingly good, completely secular case" for suicide (though I'm not saying there isn't one).
Let's start from the premise that our Declaration remains a secular document, despite it's three mentions of God. In the Declaration we find the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When the Founders spoke about rights, they meant inviolable rights that no mortal could take away. "No mortal" would include oneself and therefore implies a basic duty to oneself. Whatever the secular case is for suicide, I don't think it can be reconciled with American principles. I suppose this gets us into a rights v. duties debate but I think the founders would agree.
Jul '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
I have been interested in the topic of euthanasia for more than 40 years. I recently watched a film, You Don't Know Jack, which caused me to look more closely into Kevorkian, if for no other reason than to check the facts.
Claire, I think your take on Kevorkian is wrong. He was a doctor who did openly what many doctors do covertly. He helped his patients die with what dignity they had left. Suggesting that he enjoyed watching someone dying sounds like projecting. There is nothing I have read which indicates that at all. He assisted people whose lives were ending in unendurable pain and suffering. To fully understand those circumstances I would suggest Sherwin Nuland's book How We Die. Nuland is no advocate of assisted suicide or euthanasia, but his descriptions of deaths from cancer or Aids alone are sufficient to sensitize you to the real world that Kevorkian dealt with on a daily basis. Those he assisted wished their own deaths, craved them. He did not kill them. He simply helped them bring a peaceful end to suffering that was leading inevitably to death.
Jul '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
I should add, Kevorkian did not kill anyone. It was always in the hands of the patient him or herself to activate the mechanism. His view was that no one but the patient could make the determination as to whether Kevorkian could be engaged. Kevorkian did not rely on the patients' relatives in this regard.
As to the right to die, I strongly believe in the individual's right to make that choice, assuming a sound mind. What right do any you who object have to tell someone that they must continue endure what is for them unendurable at the end of their lives when they have the ability to make an alternative choice. It is far easier to discount someone else's suffering than your own. No one need make the choice or have the choice made for them. No one should demand that another suffer unendurable pain at the end of their life. What "value" is there in the complete loss of dignity prior to death?
May '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Eugene,
I suggest you research Kevorkian's victims. Many of them were neither suffering nor terminally ill.
Feb '11
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Eugene, the crux of the matter is not assisted suicide; it is suicide. You are positing the right to take your own life and to confer that right on others. Do you think you have the authority to do so? Once you go with "this is my body" then abortion is almost necessarily fair game as well.
Aug '10
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
That is incorrect.
From Wikipedia: "On the November 22, 1998, broadcast of 60 Minutes, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, 52, who was in the final stages of ALS. After Youk provided his fully informed consent (a sometimes complex legal determination made in this case by editorial consensus) on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered Thomas Youk a lethal injection. This was highly significant, as all of his earlier clients had reportedly completed the process themselves. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out mercy killings. This incited the prosecuting attorney to bring murder charges against Kevorkian, saying he had single-handedly caused the death."
Edited on Jun 3, 2011 at 11:16amFeb '11
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
Eugene, sorry I posted before I saw this post. The point would be that the choice of suicide is in itself a loss of one's dignity because it demonstrates ingratitude or a lack of respect for life itself. Granted, that's a lot easier for a health person to say, but the degree of pain does not alter the principle.
Re: Kevorkian Dead, One Assumes of Natural Causes
You won't get that case from me, because I don't know that it can be made. Re-read what I wrote again, I think you got caught on a double-negative. (My fault for writing it that way.)