Two quick comments:
Even with the right to die, I can’t stand Kevorkian’s methods. Wandering death dealer who barely knows the patient is not the way to go. That would still be a felony if I were authoring an assisted suicide bill.
People forget that Kevorkian was willing to go to jail. He showed that tape for a reason, hoping to get a trial where he could at least raise awareness of the issue, or at best he could win a precedent. It was a gamble he purposely took, and lost.
antiRepublicrat: “He showed that tape for a reason, hoping to get a trial where he could at least raise awareness of the issue, or at best he could win a precedent. It was a gamble he purposely took, and lost.”
Or did he lose? If, while he served his sentence, many Americans have been convinced that that he was not an evil murderer, did he lose?
Personally I believe we should be allowed to end our lives when we can no longer bear to go on, or when we no longer know our families. I say this as a Babyboomer whose mother lived for years after she ceased to know who she was, much less who her family members were. To be blunt, I do not want my children to pay sixty thousand plus dollars a year to keep me alive when I no longer know that I am a human being with ties to other human beings. And no, I did not pay the money for my mother’s nursing home fees. I could not have afforded to do so. My father had planned for these eventualities and bought good insurance. These options are drying up, as insurance companies close the loopholes for keeping the demented alive for many years. There is no way I’d want my husband or children to waste their resources on my survival as an unconscious body.
Whatever Kevorkian’s character, he highlighted problems being encountered by Boomers that have changed our perspectives on end of life decisions.