The “Rosa Parks” of euthanasia is coming to Gainesville in October to proselytize for his cause at the invitation of a University of Florida student organization. But Jack Kevorkian is not coming just to spread his morally repugnant message of physician-assisted suicide. He’ll be paid $50,000 for his trouble.
Only days after being released from a Michigan prison on parole for his second-degree murder conviction of a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, Accent, UF’s student speaker’s bureau, was the first to invite Kevorkian to speak about his immoral mission. According to Kevorkian’s attorney, the former pathologist has accepted the invitation and will earn the big payday—and it’s likely Kevorkian’s speech at UF will be his first, although other speaking requests are coming in.
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Kevorkian’s Oct. 11 speech is drawing criticism from Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who died in 2005 after her feeding tube was removed by court order. As head of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Schindler has begun a petition drive to UF president and the Student Government Association (of which Accent is a part) asking that the invitation to Kevorkian be rescinded.
“It is unacceptable for the University of Florida to give a platform to Jack Kevorkian, a man who willfully helped take people’s lives, some of whose only ailment was depression, and pay him $50,000 to spread his violent message of ‘mercy killing’ to the students of the University of Florida,” the petition asserts. The petition can be accessed online at http://tool.donation-net./TSSF/DrDeath.cfm?dn=1068&refer=2000.
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In the latest case study, neuroscientists describe how they implanted electrodes in the brain of a 38-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for more than six years following a serious assault. By electrically stimulating a brain region called the central thalamus, they were able to help him name objects on request, make precise hand gestures, and chew food without the aid of a feeding tube (see page 600). The thalamus is involved in motor control, arousal and in relaying sensory signals — from the visual systems, for example — to the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain involved in consciousness.
Implant boosts activity in injured brain - Deep-brain stimulation offers hope for minimally...
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