Friday, December 23, 2005
Dr. Death dying?
It looks like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, aka Dr. Death for his pro-active stance on assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, may die in prison soon.A Michigan state parole board rejected a request this week to pardon the 77-year-old or commute his sentence, despite warnings that he is in grave condition.
His lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, warned last month that Kevorkian was in "dire shape" and might not live that long. Kevorkian suffers from high blood pressure, arthritis, cataracts, osteoporosis and Hepatitis C, the lawyer said.
"I think the parole board is acting irresponsibly and outrageously," Morganroth told the Associated Press. "The doctor in the prison keeps telling us, `What can I do to get him out? He shouldn't be in here.'"
Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year prison sentence for murder for giving a fatal injection of drugs in 1998 to a man with Lou Gehrig's disease. He isn't eligible for parole until 2007.
How fitting it is that Kevorkian's punishment is to be kept alive, despite past hunger strikes, when his crime was helping others to end their lives. Thanks Doc for teaching us all that the way we die is just as important as the way we live.
If they really want to torture him, authorities should treat all of his medical conditions with the very best care money can buy. Keep him alive at all costs, even if he is gruesomely disfigured, unable to move or speak and loses all sense of dignity.
If they want to treat him with the dignity and respect that all human beings deserve, they should either free him or give him his old machine and turn their backs.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
