The Ghoulish Truth About Jack Kevokian
The news reports about Jack Kevorkian's "career" as an assisted suicide faclitator, what he would call an "obitiatrist," are so sanitized or inaccurate that I had to respond. Here it is, at the Daily Standard.
The media reports, beyond being inaccurate, overlook the profound sickness of Kevorkian and the terrible things he did--and advocated. He was not a compassionate man who only wanted to help the terminally ill when nothing else could be done to alleviate suffering. In many ways he was a monster. Read "Doctor Death Gets Out of Jail," and you will see why I would make such a strong statement.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:30 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
I hate to say it, but I really hoped he'd die in prison and we'd never have to hear about him again. But I suppose I shd. hope for his repentance instead. Fat chance, I'm afraid.
This from a reader via e-mail: "Read your post in the Weekly Standard. It reminded me that at the time of Dr. K's activities, the buzz was how people wanted "death with dignity". I never understood how being left alone after death to be discovered was dignified. When it was reported that he had left people in his van, I was repulsed. Surely,he had no respect for the dignity of the physical
body.
If the phrase comes up again, wouldn't it benefit from a discussion of what exactly dignity is? Can a person choose to end his own life, for whatever reasons and remain dignified? The only possible time I can think of, is the story
of how secret agents carry cyanide capsules to kill themselves before spilling government secrets if they
are caught by the enemy. I don't know if this is true or if it has ever happened."
I think it might be a mistake to try to analyze the concept of death with dignity and decide whether assisted suicide meets some criteria for it. It's certainly true that Kevorkian is a ghoul and had no true concern for the people he killed, including no concern for their dignity, no respect for them in life or in death. That's all true. But even if we tidied it all up so that everything really were done in a dignified and concerned way, killing disabled people would still be wrong. And on some ways of looking at it, some natural deaths would be less dignified than some murders or suicides. So I'm not sure that the concept of dignity is going to help us much to sort out right from wrong.
Fran: The check is in the mail! Thanks.
Just read your article on teh Daily Standard. Chilling. Thank you for your efforts to educate others about Mr. Kevorkian.
Thanks for visiting Secondhand Smoke, airborne eagle.
Lydia -
When you least expect it, you find someone who makes a total turn-around and repents his life. All we can do is pray that he'll do the same. It'll save his soul, and shake up the media so badly that people will be forced to take a second look.
Thanks, Wesley,
that article was helpful. Hearing such details of the cases is viscerally revealing. What a dark apothecary of destruction!
From a reader: "I am absolutely appalled to read your column about Kervorkian. Why has
this not been told before? I have read about him in the past but never
these things. I cannot believe that our wonderful mainstream press (?)
has never told us the truth about this man.
"
Alas, I am not surprised. The true story of Kevorkian was not the one the media wanted to tell.
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