Dr. Jack Kevorkian - 'I expect to die in prison'

[cynatnite]

I came across this article while hunting for information about the man. I am torn on this issue of assisted suicide for a lot of reasons, but the one thing I do agree on is this:

By what Dr. Kevorkian did, he brought to the forefront end of life decisions and how those have the right to make those decisions for themselves. He forced people to deal with these issues and I think that was a good thing.

Here is an interview with him:

http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/041104/loc_20040411071.shtml

His website: (I'm not sure if he runs it)

http://www.kevork.org/

One thing I do want to add: This man should never be forgotton. He is a brave man for the stance he took. He is up for parole in 2007.

[Maraya1969]

1. He was on a telephone interview yesterday on MSNBC. He

is asking for his sentence to be commuted. They had a poll on their site and according to it over 80% of the people said he should be let out of jail; that he had served enough time.

I agree. He said if he had to do it over he would have tried to work it through the courts instead of the way he did it.

There was someone that wrote in and said he should spend the rest of his life in jail. I was thinking; "Wait until you get into chronic horrible pain and see if your attitude changes"

[cynatnite]

2. I wish I had seen it...

I don't think he should have ever went to prison in the first place. It was never murder, IMO.

I'm hoping he can get out. He really should have our support and the officials need to know that.

I've seen patients with horrid pain from cancer and other terminal diseases. The peace they would have gotten is far better than having their final moments filled with nothing but suffering.

[dretceterini]

3. What two private individuals choose to do

and which has no effect on anyone else, is NONE of the government's business

[ClintonTyree]

4. The "right to lifers"..........

have a freaking cow every time assisted suicide is mentioned. Doesn't this shoot holes in their "right to life" claims? What they want is "mandatory life", no discussion of ever ending a life at all for any reason. That privilege is the sole possession of "god" so humans have no right to life at all, they have a right to be terminated at the whim of some invisible cloud being but not of their own choosing. :eyes: These people confuse the hell out of me.
Kevorkian is a visionary and is way ahead of his time. Sometime in the next few decades he'll be hailed as a pioneer and the father of humane euthanasia for the terminally ill. Until then he'll be scorned and imprisoned by ignorant, barbaric fools who prefer myth to fact.

[cynatnite]

5. I consider Kevorkian to be a political prisoner n/t

[springhill]

6. Yeh, but killing Iraqi women.........

and their children are just fine and dandy. God's will you know.

[dhinojosa]

7. Forgot to mention the govt assisted suicide of our troops...

by not only taking them to Iraq in the first place, but by not giving them the armor they need while they are there.

[Tyler Durden]

15. EXCEPT for the good ol' DEATH PENALTY.

That one gets the RIGHTISTS creamin' in their jeans.

Nothin' better than a good ol' AMURIKIN HANGIN' I always say.

Hypocritical rat bastards.

[gulfcoastliberal]

8. This is a painful subject. My dad has lung cancer and is a MD.

He says if it spreads to his brain he wants to OD. Would I, as his son, help him should he ask? I think I would have to, because I know I'd want the same thing. I think Kevorkian should be pardoned.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. Kevorkian was right on.

In this day and age there's no reason for someone to have to suffer for months or years or even to die the way Terri Schiavo did. We have more compassion for our pets than we do for human beings.

[radwriter0555]

10. Good. He was nothing more than a serial killer who used this angle to

enable his obsession.

There ARE good people who advance the cause of the self determined demise, he isn't one of them.

[dolo amber]

11. Why do you say that?

Not flaming, just curious.

[pschoeb]

12. His main goal is organ harvesting and human experimentation

He also doesn't care if the persons aren't terminally ill.

read his own works

Jack Kevorkian, "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death," Medicine and Law, vol. 7 (1988)

Jack Kevorkian, "A Comprehensive Bioethical Code for Medical Exploitation of Humans Facing Imminent and Unavoidable Death," Medicine and Law, vol. 5 (1986)

[Deja Q]

13. I don't have the time - please mention some of the more interesting quotes

Thanks! :D

[pschoeb]

14. here are some of his theoretical participants in his obitorium

A mentally competent 30-year-old man, deformed, in great pain, and essentially helpless due to worsening cerebral palsy, is granted his wish to die in an obitorium (in the presence of the usual witnesses) so that his organs may be taken for transplantation.

After two years of intensive professional and lay counseling and one abortive attempt at suicide by hanging, a 22-year-old man in robust physical condition certifies in writing and beyond doubt his irrevocable intention of dying. He consents to enter an obitorium, when an academic transplant team has its first opportunity of trying on a human being a new technique perfected in rats

With proper consent and endorsement from all family members and from designated authorities a hopelessly incompetent 65-year-old woman crippled by Alzheimer's disease enters an obitorium" where a "daring experiment on the brain hitherto limited to animals" is carried out. After experimenting on the woman, "a lay technician finally injects a lethal overdose of thiopental on the fourth day.

A full-term infant born with severe spina bifida, paraplegia, and hydrocephalus is transferred, once proper consent and authorization have been obtained, to an obitorium for research hitherto conducted in rats…." Two hours after putting "test material" into the infant's stomach by tube, "the abdominal cavity is opened, and the intact stomach, small intestine, and liver are removed separately for preservation and subsequent processing for chemical analysis. Meanwhile the infant's heart and lungs are removed for transplantation elsewhere.

[radwriter0555]

16. I read through the case histories at the time, which was quite a while ago

mind you, and the patterns in the behaviors and methods used to assist his victims with their deaths was ritualistic and sadistic and not in a good way. There were many, many things I considered at the time to be completely aberrant and not in line with a man who claimed to be doing compassionate work.

I honestly don't recall the details now, it really was quite some time ago, but at the time, the research on the case freaked me out.

Keep in mind I'm a total and complete advocate of people making their own choices about living a life of hell or checking themselves out in a peaceable, pain free manner. I've known several people who've willfully and peacefully committed suicide to escape terminal, painful illnesses and talked at length with them about it, and even helped them accept and deal with their choices; I totally and completely get it.

His methodology was that of a serial killer.