Dr. Jack Kevorkian (pictured right with “Death-O-Matic”), the man who helped 130 terminal patients die via physician-assisted suicide, has died… without physician-assisted suicide. The 83-year-old patient at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak died of “pulmonary thrombosis when a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart.” His niece Morganroth Kevorkian said, “It was peaceful. He didn’t feel a thing.”
Fun-fact: A recent Gallup poll reveals that Americans consider physician-assisted suicide 10 percent more morally wrong than they consider gay and lesbian relationships. On the plus side, they also consider our relationships 10 percent more morally acceptable than physician-assisted suicide! Six of one, half a dozen of the other!
Apparently Dr. K was also a painter and a jazz musician who named one of his albums, Kevorkian Suite: A Very Still Life—ha! Here’s one of his jazz songs below:
dvlaries
I liked him, I thought he was ballsy guy. Few pioneers garner no enemies.
Surely, however, he knew better than us he was gambling jail when he did his thing right on “60 Minutes.” I’m glad he got some years of freedom again at the end. If people continue to demand the right to control the quality of their lives up to and including the quality of their deaths, I wouldn’t bet against posterity ultimately casting Kevorkian as a hero.
jeff4justice
I support the right to end one’s life for terminal illness, health conditions that are miserable to live with, depression, whatever. I support a person’s right to access the least painful means of suicide. I also support the rights of families to legally assist. May more states enact right to suicide laws. May Jack rest in peace. May all people suffering have the freedom to peacefully decide their fate. May those of us equipped to help people transform from suffering to wellness do so.
Ginasf
Kervorkian was a humanitarian who tried to bring dignity to people who were suffering. Both the legal system and media mistreated him horribly. I have big respect for the dedication he had in trying to help others and I’m glad his own pain is finally over. Some day, when this country manages to actually grow up and gain some compassion, we will realize he was a hero.
ousslander
@jeff4justice: no being combatative just want to clarify. you support an 18 byear old killing them selves because of depression?
Seandee
Kervorkian asside, that survey is a little scarry! Pornography is morally wrong but wearing fur and testing on animals is fine? strange.
Mike in Asheville
@ousslander: Your question far too vague with too many variables. There are a number of 18 year-olds who have spent 18 years battling severe medical conditions — from various cancers to aging diseases to ALS. There are also 18 year-olds who are victims of terrible car/home accidents that have devastated their bodies and minds.
Why should those, of legal age, not be the ones to decide for themselves, how to live or die?
For those of us old enough, we witnessed the horrible toll on health caused by AIDS. My hubby and I attended too many funerals. When visiting those friends and exes, the common conversation was how to help them when the “time comes.” While they weren’t 18, some were our age (at the time) 20-25.
A few hours before he lapsed into a life-ending coma, my heavily sedated, oxygen ventilated dad scribbled a note asking me to remove the ventilator so he could die. I went home, devastated by the development, cried a lot, and determined that I had to fulfill his wishes (he had previously expressed his opinion about no heroic efforts and that he did not want to live in a coma confined in a hospital). I left him at 4AM and returned to the hospital at 10AM determined to do what needed done. Alas when I returned, he was in a coma and the doctor thought there was perhaps 2-3 days before his illness would end his life. He died the next day.
Most important of this issue, these are personal matters that competent adults should be allowed to make.
jeff4justice
@ousslander: Fair question.
I don’t personally wish for an 18 yo (or any age) dealing with depression to commit suicide. I’d hope this hypothetical person have every resource to people and opportunities to become hopeful about living. However, do I support the freedom for a person to take their life and to do so as pain-free as possible. Should there be counseling and alternatives presented? Sure.
I support freedom. However, most hot button social issues are not so black and white that I’m going to express every element of how I feel about such a topic. I’d have to save that for my vlogging – links to which are in my profile.
What do you think?
Syl
It’s amazing that more people in this country are against a person exercising control over their own bodies-pornography, abortion and euthanasia-than they are the state exercising the power over life and death for an individual who may be innocent.
RIP, Dr. K. You helped people who were in pain and gave them a choice.
GayGOP
I sincerely hope that “Doctor” Kevorkian, who deserved every torment he received in life, repented. Otherwise, I am sure that the flames of Hell have received another permanent guest today.
Shannon1981
Kavorkian was a humane man who wanted to relieve suffering. So shameful that he was villified the way he was. May he RIP.
Jeffree
We had your back, Jack. —
Until the US can openly discuss legalizing physician-assisted suicide, individuals with end-stage illnesses & their families are going to keep going the DIY* route. Medical ethicists have been demonized & denounced for proposing moral & scientific frameworks end-of-life decision making.
States like Oregon & Washington have taken steps to decriminalizing P.-A.S. & Switzerland seems to be the test case for Europe.
*do it yourself
“choiceindying[dot]com”‘s Ian Macdonald blogs about the issue from Canada. I have no ties to the site other than reading it
12345deviant
I cant believe more people are okay with testing on animals than with same-sex relationships. This country really has a problem.
delurker
@GayGOP: very christian of you.
ronbo
@GayGOP: May you receive the same level of kindness you dispense to others. (post haste, please!)
Your outspoken contempt for others is your sincere attempt to strip us of heaven on earth now. Shame on you and those who cooperate with fanning the fires of hate. Your attempt to save persons from the fires of hell later is to give them the fires of hell now!?! Sad that you may not see we have the option to create heaven within. Why wait?
Keep beating us with your Bibles – What? Does the salty blood only makes the trinity sweeter?
GayGOP
@ronbo: In no way can a serial killer be justified by claiming that he was alleviating suffering. This is, by any standard of morality, a horrific crime against humanity, to euthanize someone as if that human was no more than a dog.
delurker
@GayGOP: you’re really dumb even by conservative republican standard, which puts you about the level of trig palin–though he might be a little smarter.
ousslander
@jeff4justice: fair enough. I believe if a person is in sucj debillitating painand meds don’t help they should have the right to end it. A depressed 18, no. The thing is who is to judge when it’s ok and by allowing it, does that not give approval. Where is the bar set?