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Dr. Death: Does the public support
Kevorkian? Posted 5-25-98 Ethicists, legal experts, and disability activists are again questioning former pathologist Jack Kevorkian’s controversial methods after he made headlines earlier this month assisting in the suicide of a 26-year-old California man who was a quadriplegic. Kevorkian gained attention when he and a colleague were arrested May 7 and held in jail overnight after dropping off the body of Matt Johnson at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. Two police officers who were at the facility on unrelated business approached Kevorkian and psychiatrist Georges Reding, MD, after witnessing the body being removed from the back seat of the car, according to a hospital spokesperson. The confrontation resulted in a scuffle with police. Though Kevorkian—known as an angel of mercy to some, Dr. Death to others—and his associate are due back in court June 2, both men were arraigned on assault charges and released the following day. After an autopsy, it was determined that Johnson’s death was caused by lethal injection. The death was classified as a homicide. Johnson, a former champion powerlifter from Aptos, Calif., reportedly broke his neck last August after being tossed over the handlebars of a motorcycle. Some disability advocates and ethicists are pondering whether Kevorkian—who has been involved in more than 100 assisted suicides—should be allowed to continue his crusade. Diane Coleman, founder of Not Dead Yet, an organization for people with disabilities who oppose the legalization of assisted suicide, said she feels threatened by the lack of public outcry over Johnson’s death. The public would be up in arms if Kevorkian were helping members of a minority group other than the disabled commit suicide, Coleman said. "Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this? The 26-year-old was in a vulnerable time of his life," she said. "It was less than one year from his injury. He didn’t have a chance." Coleman said statistics show most disabled people are able to adjust to their new lives after an initial stage of vulnerability. Physician-assisted suicide is now legal in Oregon, but Kevorkian’s actions would not be legal there, said Virginia Tilden, DNSc, RN, nurse ethicist and professor of nursing at Oregon Health Sciences University. "Jack Kevorkian is not regarded as a good example of physician-assisted suicide." For the procedure to be considered legal in Oregon, the physician must have a long-term relationship with the patient, and the patient must be terminally ill and in the last six months of life, said Tilden, associate director of the university’s Oregon Health Sciences University.. "A person who is disabled but not terminally ill obviously does not qualify. This is not to say there aren’t times when individuals with disabilities may find life extremely difficult and may think about suicide as one of their options, but for a physician to commit the act for someone with a disability is not ethically defensible." Related Site |
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