We stand at a cultural crossroads, the intersection of the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. At this critical juncture, the choices we make matter, now and forever. Therefore, the members of Life is Worth Living, a lay apostolate, have chosen to promote the Culture of Life.
Our mission is to strive to affirm -- in thought, word, and deed -- the infinite preciousness of human life; to encourage service to others rather than radical self-interest; and to promote a climate of public opinion that recognizes the right of all human beings to life, respect, compassionate care, appropriate medical treatment, and equality under the law.
Dr. Death to be Paroled
posted by Webmaster(Originally published December 2006)
Hailed as a groundbreaking pioneer by the “right to die” movement and treated as a celebrity/hero by the media, Jack Kevorkian literally got away with murder. This unemployed pathologist was popularly known as “Dr. Death”. By his own count he assisted the “voluntary” deaths of more than 130 people in the 1990s, using either intravenous drugs or carbon monoxide gas. Yet, he was convicted of only one murder.
Kevorkian chose Michigan as his killing field because, until 1998, it had no law banning assisted suicide. Assisted suicide means that assistance is given by another to a person who performs the last act that causes his or her death. For example, it is assisted suicide when a person self-administers drugs prescribed by a doctor for the purpose of causing death (as is legal in Oregon).
In 1998, Kevorkian videotaped himself giving a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease, in what was clearly a homicide, not an assisted suicide. Kevorkian then submitted the video to CBS which broadcast it nationally on “60 Minutes”. It was also presented as evidence in court. The prosecutor said, “He came like a medical hit man in the middle of the night with a bag of poison to do his job.” Serving as his own attorney, Kevorkian retorted, “I call it a medical service.” A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder.
Kevorkian preyed mainly on struggling disabled persons who were not terminally ill. Disability rights activists were understandably outraged when the Michigan Parole Board announced in December that he will be paroled next summer after serving only a little over eight years of a 10-25 year prison sentence.
In a news release, Sister Monica Kostielney, president and CEO of the Michigan Catholic Conference, objected to the early release of “an individual who perpetrated the crime of murder over 130 times.” “Assisted suicide,” she stated, “represents an affront to the dignity of the human person, a crime against life and an attack on humanity.”
Kevorkian began his killing spree on June 4, 1990 when he used a homemade “self execution machine” to kill Janet Adkins of Portland, Oregon. The contraption was a series of three bottles suspended from a pole and attached to an intravenous line. The first bottle contained saline solution, the second an anesthetic, and the third a lethal concentration of potassium chloride to cause cardiac arrest. Once Kevorkian started the intravenous saline solution, Mrs. Adkins is said to have pushed a button to deliver the contents of the other bottles into her bloodstream. Kevorkian had not met or talked to Mrs. Adkins until the night before he assisted her suicide in his rusty Volkswagen van at a campground north of Detroit. Although Mrs. Adkins reportedly had Alzheimer’s disease, she played tennis with her son the week before she was killed—and won.
Within hours of Mrs. Adkins “exit” from this life, Kevorkian and his suicide machine were front page news across America. On one news broadcast Kevorkian proclaimed, “It is time for death control.” In the ensuing months and years, Kevorkian proved that he meant it by leaving a trail of dead bodies in Michigan.
Kevorkian’s attorney, Mayer Morganroth, says his client will not kill again. The parole board considered the 78-year-old Kevorkian’s declining health along with the question of whether he would be a danger to society if set free. “They decided he is safe for release,” according to Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan. Once the nation’s most well-known advocate for assisted suicide, Kevorkian recently told the Los Angeles Times, “I have not changed my views on assisted suicide, but I believe it should be performed legally, and I would do whatever my health permits regarding petitions, speeches, lobbying and writing in support of legalization.”
Regardless of the parole board’s judgment, “Dr. Death” is a genuine danger to society. This unrepentant serial killer will be let loose to spread his poisonous ideas—and ideas have consequences. Furthermore, paroling him will send as strong a message as the fact that he got away with at least 129 murders before being convicted of one. The message is that killing vulnerable human beings is not a very serious crime against humanity, that it may even be excusable. With Jack Kevorkian’s release from prison, one more barrier against killing will come tumbling down.