Doctor Jack Kevorkian, also known as “Dr. Death” has been released from prison.
Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist dubbed “Dr. Death” for claims that he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides, left prison after eight years Friday still believing people have the right to die.
A smiling Kevorkian, now 79, said it was “one of the high points in life” as he walked out with his attorney.
Mike Wallace, the correspondent for “60 Minutes,” whose airing of a Kevorkian-aided suicide led to the charges and his prison term, met Kevorkian outside with an embrace and the words, “Hello, young man.” Kevorkian is to appear in a “60 Minutes” segment on Sunday.
Attorney Mayer Morganroth said his client planned a news conference on Tuesday.
“He thanks everybody for coming. He thanks the thousands who have supported him, have written to him and the enormous amount of people who have really been comfortable in supporting him,” Morganroth said. “He just wants a little privacy for the next few days.”
Throughout the 1990s, Kevorkian challenged authorities to make his actions legal — or try to stop him. He burned state orders against him and showed up at court in costume.
Now, if there is one thing the government should not have anything to say about, it is about whether or not someone wants to continue living. The government truly has, in my opinion, no right, or should have no right, to tell people that it is illegal for them to end their lives, while these people are suffering tremendously.
I can see why a doctor believes that if he wants to help certain people, that might mean assisting them in their suicide. For some, life has become so difficult, so painful, so hopeless, that I understand why they believe that they would be better off dead. Again, I can understand that a doctor, then, takes the difficult decision to help them do what they want to do and to die in grace (and without pain).
Should Dr. Kevorkian have broken the law? No. That is inpardonnable. First change the law, then act. Not the other way around (in a liberal democratic society at least, I am not talking about life under a dictator).
“Ruth Holmes, who has worked as [Kevorkian’s] legal assistant and handled his correspondence while he was in prison” said: “This should be a matter that is handled as a fundamental human right that is between the patient, the doctor, his family and his God.”
I agree completely. The government should stay out of it.
Make rules to make sure that people do not act on impulse, but the decision whether one wants to live or not, is not for the government to make.
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