Jack Kevorkian has kicked the bucket. 
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Just saw this earlier, his actions may be controversial but he meant to help people who were suffering.Comment -
In the future people are goign to be dumbfounded that we sent this guy to jail.Comment -
His life was noble....
he tried to relieve suffering in
the worst cases.
RIP
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I was thinking Dr Death Steve Williams the Wrestler.Comment -
Jack Kevorkian DEAD!!
CBS/AP) Jack Kevorkian has died, but the cause he long championed - physician-assisted suicide - lives on.
The ghoulish-but-folksy physician died Friday not by his own hand but at a hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., where he was being treated for pneumonia and kidney problems. He was 83.
Kevorkian, nicknamed "Dr. Death," became an outspoken and often controversial proponent of patients' right to take their own lives, gaining international notoriety in a 1998 60 Minutes interview, which showcased one of the suicides in which he participated.
"Somebody has to do something for suffering humanity," Kevorkian explained. "I put myself in my patients' place. This is something I would want."
PICTURES - 8 signs someone is at risk for suicide
Among the patients whose suicide was Kevorkian facilitated was Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Portland, Ore. woman who died in 1990 after Kevorkin hooked her up to a "suicide machine" he had built using parts scavenged from flea markets. Altogether, Kevorkian helped end the lives of 130 people with ailments ranging from multiple sclerosis and cancer to Lou Gehrig's disease.
One of Kevorkian's dreams was to establish "obitoriums," places where people could go to end their lives. He didn't live to see that happen, but physician-assisted suicide is edging closer to the medical mainstream.
Washington, Oregon, and Montana now allow physician-assisted suicide. In addition, several professional organizations now endorse an approach to end-of-life care known as "aid-in dying," according to Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy group. The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the American Medical Women's Association released position statements in favor of the practice. The basic idea of aid-in-dying, Lee told CBS News, was for doctors to give patients a choice while in palliative care or hospice - that if they suffer despite trying other end-of-life therapies, they could end their lives.
But not everyone agrees with Lee, that doctors should be serving up life-ending medication for their suicide-minded patients.
Stephen Drake, a research analyst for a disability advocacy group called Not Dead Yet, said physician-assisted suicide often ends up taking the lives not of terminally ill patients, but of people who had better options.
"Suicide-prevention people have written off the old, ill, and disabled," he told CBS News.
What do you think? Should patients be able to end their lives with the help of a doctor? Or was Jack Kevorkian dead wrong?Comment -
He is right..... a folk hero in my mind. If I knew I was going to die anyway why should I not be able to choose how and why. We put animals to death because it's the right thing to do, but humans we prolong the suffering. I had to authorize someone I loved to not be put on life support.... I did it because that's not what she would have wanted. Until you actually have to do that no one understands the feelings and emotions that are in play here. If it happens to me, I hope the person choosing would do the same for me.Comment -
Its said that its selfish 4 one to commit hurry currie but is it selfish of others to expect 1 to experience a level of pain that they themselves will in all probability never experience (eg terminal cancer etc) and in this regard Dr Kevorkian really was a true pioneer...Comment -
Didn't Dr Jack have one of those old vans he used to roll around in? Dude definitely was all over the news with his "visits"Comment -
If people want to die... let them die!!! Why are people so against this? People can legally buy Anti-Freeze and drink it if they want to. And they should be able to if that's what they want to do. However, if it became trendy for people to do this I can assure you that the Government would make Anti-Freeze illegal.
Happy Meals are now illegal in some areas. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Big Mac's and Whoppers are next. Eventually all fast food could become illegal. This country would be so much better off if the Government stayed out of people's lives.Comment -
The longer I've lived, the more I've come to appreciate him... Why not let terminal patients have control over their destiny?Comment -
may he rest in peace..........Comment -
Great American that didn't any wrong except for practicing medical after losing his license, for controversial political reasons to begin with.Comment -
i think nobody can kill otherComment -
Problem was some were not terminal. Hence the jail sentence.
Abortion is murder. That is pretty cut and dry.
I have no problem with stem cell research, in fact private companies have made great medical advances in this field. The problem is with embryonic stem cells. No advances in medical health have ever been achieved through this research, so government should throw money at it, because private companies won't? WRONG!
A convicted murderer died yesterday. Died a natural death. Something many of his patients didn't have the chance to do.Last edited by Carseller4; 06-04-11, 08:41 AM.Comment -
Helped people from their suffering.Comment -
Good man. RIP JackComment -
RIP Rick Moranis! We'll miss you!Comment -
Dr Jack was an unusual person. He did good for his people though.Comment -
if i were in extreme pain and suffering just waiting for death, put the needle in my hand and tell me not to inject myself then leave the room. what happens after that is all on me.Comment -
Rot in Hell Mr. Death
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He was a humanitarian person. Time will give him the reason, as our society is aging steadily.
Even if not terminally ill, if someone suffer a condition without hope of returning to a minimum of quality of life (ie forced to be in pain at bed for the rest of your life) while dragging the family and loved ones (as the patient will require lots of care and money to survive), only a wacko would make a criminal of a doctor helping the guy to do what he wants: Get out of his misery.
You can even argue that hospitals and doctors forcing the patient to hang to life are pocketing good money at the cost of the patient's suffering.Comment -
neocons dont mind murdering perfectly healthy abortion doctors but they have a problem with terminally ill people choosing to end their suffering.
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