A Demented Doctor Of Death

National Review Online: Jack Kevorkian, Compassionate Eccentric? The Evidence Paints A Darker Portrait

(National Review Online)  Thwarted by the authorities from experimenting on prisoners being executed, and rejected by organ transplant programs from coupling execution with organ procurement, Kevorkian had an inspiration: “I conceived the idea,” he explained on page 189, “of expanding my death row proposal to include experimentation on willing patients who opt for euthanasia.” He traveled to the Netherlands to explore the idea with Dutch proponents of euthanasia. Upon his return, “inspired by my visit to the Netherlands, I decided to take the risky step of assisting terminal patients in committing suicide.” He began advertising for suicide clients in June 1987.

Thus Kevorkian’s entire assisted-suicide campaign was intended to permit him to engage in “obitiatry.” Toward this end, he proposed several categories of people who would qualify for killing/experimentation, which he detailed in pages 196-203:

• “Optional assisted suicide,” which he explained included “individuals, sometimes in good physical and mental health, who choose to be killed by another”:

  The compelling factors may be physical (end stage of incurable disease, crippling deformity, or severe trauma), mental (intense anxiety or psychic torture inflicted by self or others), or doxastic (religious or philosophical tenets or inflexible personal convictions). Also in this group would be the forebears of Christianity in ancient Rome, whose “choice” to be killed by hungry lions in the Coliseum was preferable to the alternative “choice” of renouncing their faith (spiritual death).

• “Obligatory Suicide,” a category comprised of “those irrevocably condemned to kill themselves,” such as “the Japanese ritual of hara-kiri” required by “a devout Shintoist guilty of intolerable sin [to] gain access to the next life.”
  
  
• “Optional Suicide,” which differed from optional assisted suicide in that these would-be obitiatric subjects “are in no way afflicted by illness but who have arbitrarily and irrevocably decided that they must die.”
  
  
• “Suicide by Proxy,” encompassing “the killing by the decision and action of another, of fetuses, infants, minor children, and every human being incapable of giving direct and informed consent.”

Kevorkian saw those in each of the above categories as not only killable, but also usable for organ procurement and human experimentation. “I believe that death in every category discussed can be merciful,” he wrote, “and at the same time yield something of real value to the suffering humanity left behind.” Moreover, he believed that human experimentation should supplant animal research, writing on page 211 that we should “never do on any animal anything aimed solely or primarily for human benefit, and for the performance of which live human subjects are available under ethically unassailable circumstances.”

Kevorkian admitted clearly that he was not in the assisted-suicide project for the compassion. Rather, as he wrote on page 214:

I feel it is only decent and fair to explain my ultimate aim…. It is not simply to help suffering and doomed persons kill themselves — that is merely the first step, an early distasteful professional obligation (now called medicide) that nobody in his or her right mind could savor. [W]hat I find most satisfying is the prospect of making 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.

What kind of experiments? Pure quackery:

If we are ever to penetrate the mystery of death — even superficially — it will have to be through obitiatry. Research using cultured cells and tissues and live animals may yield objective biological data, and eventually perhaps even some clues about the essence of mere vitality or existence. But knowledge about the essence of human death will of necessity require insight into the nature of the unique awareness of or consciousness that characterizes cognitive human life. That is possible only through obitiatric research on living human bodies, and most likely centering on the nervous system...on anesthetized subjects [to] pinpoint the exact onset of extinction of an unknown cognitive mechanism that energizes life.

Don’t expect any of these disturbing issues to be raised by Mike Wallace or Kevorkian’s other interlocutors. The media want to tell a fairy tale of Jack the Martyr jailed for pursuing the enlightened cause of compassion and “death with dignity.” But the truly interesting story that will go mostly unwritten is how a clearly twisted personality — driven to his assisted suicide campaign by an obsession with human vivisection and a desire to exploit the weak and desperate for crass utilitarian purposes — became, for a time, the most famous and popular doctor in the world.

[utena-2009]

And another thing - the right-wing economists have a vested interest in prolonging suffering, because that leads to more money for hospitals and private hospices.

So if they have their way, perhaps one day we won't be allowed to refuse or stop treatment, which would lead to more profits and more suffering. No wonder these people killed the electric car.

[utena-2009]

Anyone who says 'You don't need a doctor to commit suicide. Just do it yourself' is essentially saying 'You don't need a doctor to perform an abortion. Just do it yourself.'

Such an attitude is callous and inhumane. Why should people be limited to jumping in front of a train, off a building, shooting themselves, cutting their wrists, bringing a toaster into the bath, or a combination of these methods, among many others, to kill themselves?.

Now, they certainly can't tell their family or friends about their plans, because that could leave them open to charges: 'Why didn't you stop them?' And when they come back and see their loved one with a plastic bag over their head, or blood all over the room, they are shocked and scarred, possibly for life. And on top of this, they can't even *be* with their loved one during their final moments.

[utena-2009]

In case you're wondering. Wesley opposes assisted suicide because it denies people like him the opportunity to be 'compassionate.' What a crock! Keeping people alive for someone else's sole benefit is the epitome of selfishness.

[grumpas]

The neo-con nuts are against suicide because it goes against their staid religious belief's! Let's face it, religion rules this country! Or at least, when religious people are looking it does. I have little doubts one day abortion will become illegal to because it goes against their moral code! But, nothing else in the line of corruption and immoral behavior goes against it! I will be glad when American's grow up and move past their need for superstitious belief's into the light of the real world!

[naturaltwo]

It is clear this writer is as twisted as Jack. Obviously he has not visited or spent time with the terminally ill.

May he experience such a illness, full of pain, and be treated by the current medical establishment which did not even believe in washing its hands.

Instead of bashing why does not the writer take on the serious issues? No money it for the Pharisee.

[shanev137]

I'm so glad Kevorkian is out of jail.

The guy needs to be given a medal and promoted to sainthood for helping so many people.

[frb01]

At the time we all knew he was different and he probably took some liberties and helped people die who shouldn't have. He is not the perfect messenger, but in any case we need to look at the message because we do a very poor job handling terminal situations in this country. Proper pain management and medical guidance is a place to start. Having watched a parent die by inches, and flop around in bed during his last days because they wouldn't or couldn't treat his pain is something that I will never forget.

Whether or nor the allegations in this article are fair or accurate, I have always been suspicious of Kervorkian's motives. He has always struck me as morbidly obsessed with death...perhaps ghoul is more like it!

[johnshaft4]

We frequently read about botched, incompetent State executions. Perhaps Dr. Jack could contract with the States for his competent "services".

[bmadeline-2009]

You guys are so stupid and scary. If you don't need Dr. K's services, don't use them. But it's none of your business what someone else might need to do in there lives. He helped people end torment when invited to do so. You right wing nutbirds like killing people in war or frying them in the electric chair. All against their will.

[gkc99]

"A Demented Doctor Of Death"?

NRO wrong again! Neither Pres. Bushit nor VP Darth Chickenshit is a Doctor!

Typical NRO misinformation.

[myidoncbs]

This is yellow jounalism at its "best".