Media Malpractice: Miami Herald Still Unable to Report Accurately About Kevorkian
Another university is paying Jack Kevorkian to speak, and once again the media--in this case the Miami Herald--can't even report the basic facts about him correctly. From the story, byline Julie Levin:
Dr. Jack Kevorkian will speak from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Organizers expect a large crowd to hear the longtime advocate for a terminally ill patient's right to die. "He represents a very important perspective on the issue of life and death through assisted suicide," said Don Rosenblum, dean of NSU's Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. The school is hosting Kevorkian as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series that corresponds with its theme of ``Life and Death."...Such a short story and the only thing the Herald reported accurately--we assume--was the time and place of the speech! First, the issue isn't "suicide" but assisted suicide. Second, he didn't "turn a device on" in the murder of Thomas Youk: He lethally injected him--and then took the video of the killing to Mike Wallace for airing on 60 Minutes. Finally, he has never advocated limiting assisted suicide to the terminally ill. Indeed, most of Kevorkian's clients were not dying, but were disabled. Five weren't even sick upon their autopsy. In fact, in his 1991 book Prescription Medicide, he looked forward to eventually establishing euthanasia clinics that would even be open to people who felt morally duty-bound to end their own lives.
He eventually served eight years in prison in Michigan on a second-degree murder conviction for an assisted suicide in which he, not the patient, turned the device on. Released in 2007, he continues to advocate for a terminally ill person's right to choose suicide.
And let us not forget that Kevorkian's ultimate goal was a license to practice "obitiatry," that is human experimentation on living people he was euthanizing.
Is it really that hard to report accurately, Miami Herald?
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 11:46 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Ah, once again the old man is back in the news, even if it is just a brief little mention.
I distinctly recall that he shipped the video of murdering a man to 60 Minutes so that he could "desensitize" humanity to euthanasia because he was particulaly interested in vivisection, which I prefer to "obitiatry," since it's more to-the-point. Anybody can say something like, "Oh, the experiments he wanted to do wouldn't hurt human exceptionalism. They're to help understand the human body and the dying process." Vivisection, however, doesn't leave as much to be interpreted. "Uh, no, he wants to cut up dying people mid-death so he can see them slowly stop existing."
Pretty gross. The man has a sick mind. I say it again - if euthanasia is so great and death is better than life, I want *him* to go first. Seriously. Put your money where your mouth is or else admit you're the biggest liar or hypocrite that exists.
The Cathars (Albigensians) preached the deliberate self-ending of life, but only a few of them were brave enough to take the plunge. They did it in special houses for the "perfect ones" which were attended by , um, less perfect devotees of the belief system, who helped you stick to your regimen of self-starvation, etc.
Of course, Kevorkian undoubtedly feels that suicide is for those who want it, possibly because they feel that they are not useful any longer. Kevorkian might say that he himself is very important, that he must stay alive to carry out his important mission, and that the rules (if there are any) don't even apply to someone as uniquely talented and visionary as he.
I'm just guessing.
Do they ever have anyone come to speak about the patient's right to live, about the danger of "living wills," about the culture of death?
T.E.: I certainly agree with you about vivisection. The point I've been making about animal rights is that it's wrong, and that when it's done to other animals it ends up causing harm to us as well. Kevorkian's "obiatry" (is that what he calls it? gee it sounds so "medical" and "legitimate") is just one example of that.
But liars and hypocrites don't admit that that's what they are...
Well said T.E.
Holyterror: Good guess, and the circumstantial evidence supports it.
Wesley and/or TE Fine:
I would love a source for the part about obitiary & vivsection.
Holy Terror: Prescription Medicide, page 214, among other pages: "I feel it is only decent and fair to explain my ultimate aim. ...It is not simply to help suffering or doomed persons kill themselves--that is merly the first step, an early distasteful professional obligation (now called medicide) that nobody in his or her right mind would could savor. I explained that what I find most satisfying is the prospect of making the possible the performance of invaluable experiments or other beneficial medical acts under conditions that this first unpleasant step can help establish--in a word obitiatry, as defined earlier."
On page 243 he says that to understand "the essence of human death" will require "insight into the nature of the unique awareness of consciousness that characterizes cognitive human life. That is possible only through obitiatric research on living human bodies, and most likely by concentrating on the central nervous system."
Ghoul.
Only "most likely"?
DYING living human bodies.
"Ghoul" is right.
Appearances can be deceiving, in both directions, but often creeps and ghouls look like just what they are. It's like Frank Perdue looking like a chicken. Same with this guy.
I did NOT mean to impugn Frank Perdue.
"Of course I'll help you kill yourself. And by the way, do you mind if I experiment on you as you are dying into the bargain?"
Gee, "obiatry" strikes the eye like "obituary," doesn't it. Just one letter away.
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