Kevorkian Against Final Exit Network Assisted Suicide Method!
Jack Kevorkian, who painted the delightful picture above, helped kill people--other than Thomas Youk, who he lethally injected--via an assisted suicide machine in which the client flipped a switch opening the valve of a canister containing carbon monoxide. Yet, he has come out against the alleged approach to assisted suicide taken by the arrested Final Exit Network assisted suicide practitioners. From the story:
Southfield attorney Mayer Morganroth said Kevorkian, once referred to as Dr. Death, believes a doctor should always be involved in any type of assisted suicide.FEN activists didn't use carbon monoxide: They allegedly used helium. I can see why Kevorkian would object!
"Other than that, he's not allowed to express any views about the methods they use," Morganroth said Thursday. "That's a limitation on his parole. The only thing he can say is that he disagrees with the methods and one of the reasons is that there should be a doctor present."
As to having a doctor present for assisted suicide, he wasn't one for most of his assisted suicides since he had lost his license to practice. Moreover, he was a pathologist and had not treated living patients since his medical training in the 1950s. Moreover one more time, Switzerland doesn't require a doctor's presence, and doctors in the Netherlands now give a book to patients who don't qualify for euthanasia on how to commit "auto euthanasia," which is their euphemism for suicide.
Finally, FEN activists may be fanatics, but unlike Kevorkian, they never advocated conducting human experiments on the people they were helping to kill.
Labels: Assisted Suicide. Jack Kevorkian. Final Exit Network.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 6:53 AM
20 Comments
20 Comments:
What a picture. What if he were out on the sidewalk selling his wares/paintings? How long would he last without "Dr." in his name? Why are all these people not in jail?
I know. I think that more such pictures should be shown when Kevorkian is discussed. It shows his morbid fascination with death and could impact his credibility in the eyes of those who hopes to influence.
It's also interesting that when one studies the picture beyond its basic presentation, one notices the hat filled with crosses and stars of David-clearly indicating his distain for Judeo-Christian ethics as an oppressive force that keeps his vision of "freedom" from being implemented.
What a great observation. And freedom for whom? I can't think of any religion or time in history in which what he favors is or would have been regarded as ok. As a classicist I don't care for the imagery in the picture, either. It's as if he's saying that until the Judeo-Christian ethic came along this was ok, and the Judeo-Christian ethic intefered the ethos of "enlightened reason" that he is associating with what he likes to do. I can't imagine the ancient Greeks and Romans doing or endorsing Kevorkianism; their ethos celebrated life, this life, even more than the Judeo-Christian one does, in my opinion. "Rather a slave on earth than a king in Hades," etc. Acient warfare, and some aspects of Roman civilization, were brutal indeed. But that was in the context of winning, dominion, etc., not in order to do Kevorkianism.
I thought I heard or read somewhere that Kevorkian did paintings in prison, but I'm not sure. When did he do them, when did he start doing them, how many of them are there? There's a reason Hannibal Lecter was kept in the kind of place where he was kept; there's a reason for that kind of prison. There are a lot of people who belong in them and instead are running around loose protected by constitutional rights. We have GOT to have blanket pro-life laws and values; it's not the foetuses I'm worried about; it's those Kevorkian, "Compassion and Choices," etc. can get to. The trade-off seems to have been convenience for women (and, even more, the men who are the fathers of the aborted) and those who "want" assisted suicide vs. the safety of those who do not want to die and are ending up dead anyway, and possession being nine points of the law, the interests of the latter, who are in possession of life and want and have a right to remain in possession of it, have to outweigh those of the rest. Wanting to retain something takes precedence over wanting to give it up. Otherwise we'll have complete insanity going on. No, wait, we already do, don't we.
Look, there's a swastika in there, too. What's in the other hat? Bullets? Is that a fish? Why the apple in the guy's mouth? How could a person devour their own head on a plate, and why is is the ancient warrior holding his hand as if to restrain him, and why the look on the warrior's face? This is just too crazy. It needs 25 guys from Vienna working on the case around the clock to figure this out, and analyze Kevorkian. I wonder what Kevorkian's own death will be like. I wish, as an astrologer, I had his birth data. He's like a curiosity from the National Enquirer as it used to be. Only a million times more macabre. Plus look at Kevorkian. It's like the way Frank Perdue looked like a chicken. All that time in prison and the shrinks there never deemed him criminally insane? I can't imagine they couldn't have found him interesting in terms of what they do. Did they ever publish findings on him? He has presented as someone interested in research, and it's understandable in an academic sense that one would want to understand what goes on in the brain during the process of death, from a scientific standpoint. But that's the problem -- too much "science." Oh, Lord, has he done such experiments on non-human animals? Has that been done to death, as it were, and now they/he want to study it in humans? Once again, if it weren't considered ok to experiment on non-human animals, there wouldn't be the "legitimacy" of experimenting on humans. Reverence for life HAS to be across the board. It's the OPPOSITE of the Nuremberg Code reasoning that is valid. The NC has it backwards, and that's where the trouble is coming from ever since. Science has been sick for a long time and it's not well in our day.
YES his painting(s) should be featured in public discussion of him.
I'm trying to figure out how kids today who have to read about and hear about him and the assisted suicide etc. issue and crew in the media possibly can grow up to be normal and healthy, what impact it has on them, both short-term and long-term. No one even mentions that, certainly not the death culture proponents. Certainly they've started mutilating themselves with piercings and tattoos and doing all sorts of other self-destructive behaviors at the same time all this stuff has been taking hold. Did teenage mothers used to leave babies in trash bags, etc. years ago? Was that just not talked about then? Wasn't it a time of "looser morals" back in the 1920s and 1930s when euthanasia was an issue in the United States? Weren't Hollywood and glamour "the thing" at that time? Trends happen in a context, not in a vacuum.
I don't think that he's done experiments on animals-he'd consider that irresponsible-but experimenting on disabled human beings, well, for him that's just fine. I think thatthe two silver things in the front are missles. There is a finger in one of the bowls-I'm not sure what else is in the bowl. Where's the swastika? I didn't see it.
I think it is bullets in the bowl-the warrior restraining the headless man is the Roman god of war, Mars. If anyone wants to see more of Kevorkian's ghastly work, you can see some more of his paintings here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/art/
His "Nearer my God to Thee" seems particularly relevant in how it encourages people to be afraid of death, regardless of what the caption underneath the painting says.
SAFEpres: You're right -- it's a finger, and it looks like it would be Mars's finger. Yes those two things in the front do look like missiles. They also look like a salt and pepper shaker set, and my guess is he wanted them to look like both that and missiles. The swastika is in the brown bowl, I mean helmet, on the left, in the center, on top, at the back of the bowl/helmet. He seems to like double meanings. How clever of him. I wonder if he painted this in prison and hoped to scare the living daylights out of any big guy who wanted to make a little guy like him his prison wife. Of course he wants people afraid of death -- more fun killing them that way. You're right, he would consider experimenting on non-human animals irresponsible. And it is, but not the way he would mean. It's irresponsible to experiment on humans the way he wants to, and does, as well. And unethical and horrible either scenario. I think the other things in the bowl Mars has his finger on/in are bullets? Maybe he's trying to make the point that people kill each other in war, so what's the fuss about what he does? His friends probably consider him very witty. This is just nauseating.
.........Uh.
.........Did he *really* paint that?
Tell me you're joking, Wesley, *please,* because I was about to go to bed and that's going to give me nightmares. I mean, damn....
Ianthe -
I don't recommend trying to do Kevorkian's astrological profile. He's disturbing enough without having to get a deeper glimpse into his head. I don't want you getting nightmares, too.
The guy is wack.
Tabs: He did and worse. He even mixed his own blood into some of his paintings.
It is a real sign of the times that this guy had good poll numbers and received freindly media.
T.E.: You're right; contact with the chart would be contact with the energy. But "for scientific purposes" it would be interesting. My best friend years ago had a business partner who was always causing problems and when I asked him if he had his birth data so that I could see how he could be best handled, he said: "HE DOESN"T HAVE A CHART, BECAUSE HE WAS NEVER BORN."
Well I couldn't resist, T.E., and remembered wikipedia; all this new-fangled computer stuff takes m a while to catch up with. May 26, 1928. A curious Gemini, and being born in the year of the Dragon gives him a certain charisma and ability to influence. Can't tell for sure without the birth time but the moon may be in Virgo, which wouldn't be surprising, or in Leo, the showman who thrives on attention. Other than that, he's a very curious fellow, quick and eccentric in his actions, could identify with Mars in the painting, has a fascination with death and has "what's yours is mine" values, and his health and his work are not unrelated to his eating habits and his values in general. He could have breathing problems; his thinking is curiosity-driven and superficial and at the same time structured, dogmatic, and limited. If his kidneys don't get him, the public and/or litigation will. I guess he's 80 now. Is he moving his home base around now, and/or having trouble with aging, or home/real estate?
And that's part of what's really scary, T.E. -- I think he does identify with Mars, and I don't like the cannibalism imagery either.
Also this is not a guy with depth; he's about doing (and destroying), not reflecting. He resonates with the color red, and he loves to cut. Beyond that, he likes things that are hidden, and things that people don't know that he likes, perhaps. And it looks like he wants to be known and recognized for what he does, feted, have an audience, etc. He may also crave a feeling of being, and being known as being, "helpful." What I don't understand is why he was running around loose for as long as he was, and why he is again now. Well that could be said for a lot of his crowd.
Ianthe -
If I'm not mistaken, people born in the Year of the Dragon have a tendency towards excessive ambition, to the point of their own downfall at times. They're too flamboyant, and they demand that everything be for their good, rather than the good of all. Self-centered.
(I dated a Dragon/Sag once. As I'm a Snake/Taurus, it didn't work out so well. Bah.)
Forgive me for delving into something I'm not a professional at, but wouldn't he, as a Gemini, be associated with the tarot card The Lovers? In the reverse, The Lovers card has the connotation of the sundering, the rending, and the breaking apart of things united, as well as the reverse being a sort of reflection of the Devil. Gemini are generally seen in the positive light as dreamers, but in a sense a "negative Gemini" would be someone who's sundered apart from both earthly reality and spiritual health, so he's sort of in a self-perpetuated limbo.
I admit I don't practice either Tarot or Astrology, so I apologize if I'm way off base and am willing to be corrected, but even so, it's a scary thought. Just my two cents from under my rock.
T.E.: I don't understand why you always feel you have to have thar rock on top of you. I don't do tarot or get into the meaning of the cards and I'll take your word for it. I ever thought of Gemini as dreamers. They can be detached, I'll say that, and when they go negative they can be very destructive, and that can start with the detachment. I think that's what you're saying. I think you're being a little hard on Dragons. He's not the most shining example of one. Problem with his being a Dragon is that they inspire people and people believe in them and follow them and consider them lucky -- like the dragon in the Chinese New Year parade. It's part of what got him as far as he's gotten. It's his Aries planets that are self-centered (and like red, and blood). (I do allow that if I remember right, Dragon has been equated with Aries. But without the dragon, we're nowhere. Which is precisely why in terms of his "movement" his being a Dragon is a problem.) Snakes and Dragons are not incompatible; but when Taurus doesn't cotton to the Sag's need for the bull to take a back seat to the archer in some way and play a supporting role, that's that.
It was my former archer's desire to be top stallion in a herd of four mares (two of whom were married at the time all four of us were unknowingly dating him) that made this bull see red.
As for the rock, I sometimes feel like I'm better off keeping my mouth shut, but it's like that old saying. "You have the right to remain silent; what you lack is the capacity." That's all.
Finally, about Kevorkian - I don't really know, as I don't dabble in anything more than studying seasonal weather patterns so I have an idea of what kind of coat to buy ever year for winter (I live in Houston - the joke is that if you don't like the weather, walk a block, and you'll find something completely different). So I can't guarantee anything I said, but I do have a friend who dabbles in tarot, and anyway, whatever you say about him, you have to admit he's trouble, because he keeps pushing forward toward death without any kind of real understanding of what death is.
What's scary is I saw that link of paintings he did and I actually understood his Easter one. Made me very uncomfortable. I'm not crazy about his "explanations" of any of his paintings. He comes off as being a superior to the rest of us - he knows better than we do.
See, this is why I don't like the push toward assisted suicide. Someone who "knows better" will always be on hand to help out those of us who don't want to die early. And what happens if I have kids and then one day a son-in-law decides I'm old enough, I've lived my life, and he wants the money I'd leave to his wife? Naturally, if I'm incapacitated, a child of mine would have to handle my estate, including my own person, and I've seen enough Tru TV (Formally Court TV) to know that people who want to be in control will find a way to get into control. It's one thing to get caught in a murder, it's another if the state *sanctions* that murder!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home