Pro-Kevorkian

[Image]

Can't wait to see his interview on 60 Minutes tonight.

Too bad he had to suffer for all those years when all he wanted to do was help ease the suffering of others. And sincerely wish in his last days he has his own pain eased as well...

I hope his philosophy is embraced by the newer generation. I think it is... I'm so hopeful about kids these days. It took a couple of generations but it's finally coming of age.

The people who helped put him in jail so many years ago are slowly but surely being phased out and more progressive ideas are being born into this world by the day...

So what's your philosophy?

 

[Arctic_Fox]

Can't wait to see his interview on 60 Minutes tonight.

Too bad he had to suffer for all those years when all he wanted to do was help ease the suffering of others. And sincerely wish in his last days he has his own pain eased as well...

I hope his philosophy is embraced by the newer generation. I think it is... I'm so hopeful about kids these days. It took a couple of generations but it's finally coming of age.

The people who helped put him in jail so many years ago are slowly but surely being phased out and more progressive ideas are being born into this world by the day...

So what's your philosophy?

He does have a good philosophy about easing the suffering, but how about people that are living and want to live even, but can't speak for themselves, this would give the relative(s) in this situation the power to euthanize or not.

Food for thought

 

[Le Jacquelope]

The right to kill yourself could easily become the duty. Health insurance companies are no doubt slavering over this.

 

[Matthew Craig]

My thoughts? Anyone who doesn't have the balls to kill themselves, and has to pay someone else to do it, doesn't really want to die in the first place. If you want out, do it yourself.

 

[bronzeage]

He does have a good philosophy about easing the suffering, but how about people that are living and want to live even, but can't speak for themselves, this would give the relative(s) in this situation the power to euthanize or not.

Food for thought

Relatives have always had that power. Its only when they disagree it becomes an issue.

 

[mcopado]

Working at a medical school in Detroit I had on many occasion the opportunity to work with him, and hear him speak to the medical students there. I heard him outline his vision for a safe, sane and even legal alternative to the "back alley" way he was forced to do what I think was a noble task..

He compared his ideal way of doing "death with dignity" as much the same process as anyone going through sexual readjustment surgery...Lots of evaluations both medically and psychologically....family support for those going through this spiritual support...and the finest medical facilities possible to make tha passing as smoothly and as digified as possible...

He shaped my beliefs about end of life even before ministry entered into my ideas...Had I been ordained while he was free and doing what he was doing, I would have offerred my service as a chaplain to his patients and their families, during the process...and even been willing to go to jail too...

Now having gone through a long illness with my father a couple years back...And writing to my politicians and international end of life groups about the indignity of many people having no quality of life, but pain and terminal illness, but no safe, sane, or compassionate way out for people..... I'm even more convinced that he is/was right in what he did...although not necessarily how he was forced to do it...

He still remains a hero to me...

In answer to your question about the future...I only knew of one young physician in Detroit who was as passionate and willing to speak vocally pubicly about this travesty of long term painful sufferring...THough I know quite a few, including many of the facutly of the medical school who agreed with Jack...but were too cowed by the Right Wing Religuous, Media and Public Campaign against him...

Very similiar to how the scientist Willhelm Reich was himself persecuted for his beliefs...and his books publically burned...

I think some time down the road...Dr. K willbe looked at as a martyr to the cause...

 

[Emerald Eyed]

My thoughts? Anyone who doesn't have the balls to kill themselves, and has to pay someone else to do it, doesn't really want to die in the first place. If you want out, do it yourself.

Dumbass, he doesnt kill you, he gives the patient the means to do it themselves.

In the end, it is them doing it.



I wouldnt allow an animal to suffer, I don't want to suffer either.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I have no problem with the general idea that it would be nice if people with horrible terminal illnesses could die with dignity....but I find him really, really sketchy.

 

[Matthew Craig]

Dumbass, he doesnt kill you, he gives the patient the means to do it themselves.

In the end, it is them doing it.



I wouldnt allow an animal to suffer, I don't want to suffer either.

Doesn't really matter when all of us own knives now does it. Down the street not across the road kids.

 

[Image]

even before ministry entered into my ideas...Had I been ordained while he was free and doing what he was doing, I would have offerred my service as a chaplain to his patients and their families, during the process...and even been willing to go to jail too...

THough I know quite a few, including many of the facutly of the medical school who agreed with Jack...but were too cowed by the Right Wing Religuous, Media and Public Campaign against him...

Very similiar to how the scientist Willhelm Reich was himself persecuted for his beliefs...and his books publically burned...

I think some time down the road...Dr. K willbe looked at as a martyr to the cause...

He is way ahead of his time or maybe just born too late... I suspect that assisted suicide was a long ago practice.

 

[scrymettet]

Legal in Netherland, Belgium and more or less Oregon.

 

[Liontamr]

Quitting thankfully isn't something my family believes in.. It's up to a higher power to decide when we go and no one else's. That's what I believe.

There happens to be a lot of weak people out in the world though and if they feel they can't go on with life, who are we to stop them?

 

[Image]

I have no problem with the general idea that it would be nice if people with horrible terminal illnesses could die with dignity....but I find him really, really sketchy.

You know, for unknown reasons I rather felt that myself after seeing the interview. I saw it 9 years ago as well, before he went to prison but for some reason I viewed him, as you say 'sketchy', this time as well...

Odd, that... But I still believe in his philosophy regardless of his persona. I guess I changed.

 

[JustSkye]

I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for his ideas.
I could not imagine watching a family suffer the horrific pain of cancer eating away at them and the meds no longer working and the agony they have to endure. For those that say it's wrong, walk a mile... but, I hope you never have to.
It should be our right to chose how we die. Not the government or anyone else's.
Weakness has nothing to do with it.

 

[Image]

Quitting thankfully isn't something my family believes in.. It's up to a higher power to decide when we go and no one else's. That's what I believe.

There happens to be a lot of weak people out in the world though and if they feel they can't go on with life, who are we to stop them?

Congrats on what works for your family...

But don't equate weakness to making the decision to end your own life. It's a decision not reached lightly and it takes a lot of courage to decide it...

You seem to imply that they are acting as idiots and why stop them. You couldn't be more insultive...

 

[rosco rathbone]

You know, for unknown reasons I rather felt that myself after seeing the interview. I saw it 9 years ago as well, before he went to prison but for some reason I viewed him, as you say 'sketchy', this time as well...

Odd, that... But I still believe in his philosophy regardless of his persona. I guess I changed.

I'm sure all in all that he's a force for good. However, I was doing some reading about his history and I see why people are really freaked out by him.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Quitting thankfully isn't something my family believes in.. It's up to a higher power to decide when we go and no one else's. That's what I believe.

There happens to be a lot of weak people out in the world though and if they feel they can't go on with life, who are we to stop them?

Weak? Why don't you get saddled with that pain with death being the only way out. Then let's see what you think is weak.

 

[Liontamr]

You feel it takes courage to make a decision to end one's own life .. and you may be right.

I simply don't feel that way for very personal reasons.

 

[Vikingstone]

I wishy I had excess cash. I'd toss a head of cabbage at the good Doctor.

 

[Liontamr]

Weak? Why don't you get saddled with that pain with death being the only way out. Then let's see what you think is weak.

You have no idea..

I've been in a situation where the plug could have been pulled.. Where 'comforting' the person in her final hours would have been an easier out than going to hell and planning to stay for a full year and taking the chance that MAYBE after that year or so she could come out on the other side alive and better than when she entered..

*shrug* I just prefer never to give up on life. Period.

 

[Arctic_Fox]

Relatives have always had that power. Its only when they disagree it becomes an issue.

I would hate to be the unwilling victim of a relative(s) wishes if they came to the conclusion I must go. For if it were me, I would want to live.

 

[bronzeage]

I would hate to be the unwilling victim of a relative(s) wishes if they came to the conclusion I must go. For if it were me, I would want to live.

That is not my experience. I have seen many people who underwent medical treatments to extend their life for a few months or weeks, only out of reguard for their families feelings. Left to themselves, they would have preferred to die and forgo another few months of pain with no end in sight.

In real life situations, most famlies force a loved one to endure as much as medically possible.

 

[Image]

*shrug* I just prefer never to give up on life. Period.

I'm sorry of course for what you went through... No one wants to give up on life if they are living it. But you have to realize that death is part of the cycle of living, no one escapes that.

You may believe that god alone makes that decision but that same god is part of us...

 

[JazzManJim]

So what's your philosophy?

If folks are bent on dying, they should do it themselves. I'm not at all interested in a society that says it's a good thing to help people end their lives. That's a very slippery slope I don't even want to begin to go down.

 

[JustSkye]

That is not my experience. I have seen many people who underwent medical treatments to extend their life for a few months or weeks, only out of reguard for their families feelings. Left to themselves, they would have preferred to die and forgo another few months of pain with no end in sight.

In real life situations, most famlies force a loved one to endure as much as medically possible.

Indeed. Out of selfishness and how much they would miss them, rather than thinking of all the pain and suffering the person is doing just to live day by day.