Kevorkian's Cause Founders As He's Freed

[AnOhioan]

Source: Associated Press

For nearly a decade, Dr. Jack Kevorkian waged a defiant campaign to help other people kill themselves.

The retired pathologist left bodies at hospital emergency rooms and motels and videotaped a death that was broadcast on CBS' "60 Minutes." His actions prompted battles over assisted suicide in many states.

But as he prepares to leave prison June 1 after serving more than eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the death of a Michigan man, Kevorkian will find that there's still only one state that has a law allowing physician-assisted suicide - Oregon.

snip

Opponents defeated a measure in Vermont this year and are fighting similar efforts in California. Bills have failed in recent years in Hawaii, Wisconsin and Washington state, and ballot measures were defeated earlier by voters in Washington, California, Michigan and Maine.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KEVORKIANS_RELEASE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[Nomad559]

1. Jack Kevorkian on 60 Minutes

With Andy Rooney - May 1996

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/QuNe5Pu/Jack-Kevorkian-on-60-Minutes

:)

[ixion]

2. IMO, people have a right to choose to end their life

otherwise, it would not really be theirs.

[struggle4progress]

12. A person should always be free to refuse to eat. With adequate hydration

and any necessary pain management, this is not typically a difficult or uncomfortable way to end life. I've known at least one person who did this.

[Vidar]

3. Kevorkian is right, albeit a tad ghoulish. I'm ashamed of my state

for imprisoning him and am glad he's out.

[Pastiche423]

4. I am so proud of my state - Oregon

[cullen2382]

5. He should have never been imprisoned

I watched my grandmother die of cancer. Her last two weeks, other family members and I stayed at her house and took shifts so someone was always awake and by her bedside at all times. I wanted to give her too much morphine so badly. To watch someone you love die that painfully is awful. If I wouldn't have been so scared about being found out and charged, you bet your ass I would have relieved her of all of that pain.

[Hissyspit]

13. Welcome to DU!

:patriot:

[Miss Chybil]

6. However, it is common practice now to manage pain to a point that could bring death.

As long as death is not the goal and pain management is, if one dies in the process, it is not illegal. Kevorkian changed more than he is given credit for.

On edit: This type of pain management assumes the patient is terminal, obviously. One would not want to "comfort" a healthy person to death!

[shrike]

10. Yes, ask any hospice nurse.

[Catch22Dem]

7. I think the article contradicts itself

The topic was completely off limits 8 years ago, and now one state allows physician-assisted suicide and the measure has been on the ballot in several other states. See how a little re-wording makes it actually sound like we've made progress.

[sandnsea]

8. Oregon has had the law 13 years

It was a hot button issue at the time. There's no talk about it at all now. I think the article is right, there's been no progress at all. It's sad because all the hysteria over assisted suicide was clearly misplaced. It's rarely used and hasn't been abused at all. The irony is the futile care law in Texas is exactly why the right-to-lifers objected to assisted suicide. And they helped write the futile care bill. Crazy.

[Catch22Dem]

9. Wow, has it been that long?

Then I stand corrected! I can't believe 13 years have gone by like that.

[sandnsea]

11. It's nuts isn't it?

I was thinking it had been 7 or 8 when I was looking it up. 13?!? Yikes! I was surprised too.