The Death of Dr. Kevorkian

In early June, Dr. Jack Kevorkian died at age 83. Appears it was a blood clot that finally took his life.

In reading a bit more about him, I discovered "Kevorkian's ultimate goal was to establish "obitoriums" where people would go to die. Doctors there could harvest organs and perform medical experiments during the suicide process. Such experiments would be "entirely ethical spinoffs" of suicide", he wrote in his 1991 book "Prescription: Medicide — The Goodness of Planned Death.""

UM. WOW.

I won't irritate you with details, but let's just say that "medical experiments" and "Heil Hitler!" work together in the same, revolting sentence. Just like "Dr. Kevorkian" and "assisted suicide" go hand-in-hand.

During lengthy trials regarding the most famous of his medical acts, which was videotaped and shared with the news program "60 Minutes", one of Kevorkian's arguments against his prosecution for murder was that he had not violated The Hippocratic Oath.

I had heard of the Oath before, seen the "snake" rod of Asclepius, but I never had taken the time to actually look at the text. There are actually two versions--one ancient and one modern--and I have to assume Kevorkian was referring to the updated version when he stated he had never violated the Oath.

The reason I believe this is that the older version uses the phrase I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.  If Dr. Kevorkian considered his actions to be in harmony with the Oath, there is no way possible he could have been referencing the original. 

Sadly, I clump this in with so many other things we've updated to "match the times".  Often, when we modernize an old concept, it means that some segment of society doesn't like the way things have always been and need to see society change moral direction to define their (often) bad behavior as acceptable. 

Because "a spade is a spade", it rarely matters that we change the rules so behavior and action match, thus conferring societal acceptance on our beliefs.  Bad behavior in 1934 is still bad behavior in 2011, no matter what changes have been made to our Earthly laws or ideas.

I think Dr. Kevorkian was pitifully misled by this modernization of the Hippocratic Oath.*  I fear his interpretation of the laws governing medicine have led to a fate that has been irrefutably sealed.  He may be  finding out the hard way that what he did on Earth has eternal consequences.

Quite honestly, I hope I'm very, very wrong.  I hope he saw the error of his ways before that blood clot took his life.  Either way, an era of assisted-death on Earth is over. 

I, for one, hope that others will look at Dr. Kevorkian's life and look at it from the PROPER perspective: 

There is but One who breathes life into humanity and but One who knows when each life will end.

He will NEVER condone the taking of a life.  That, no matter the circumstances, is called murder.

May this, and not all the death surrounding him, be the lasting legacy of Jack Kevorkian.


*Interestingly, in the older version of the Oath, the clause that follows "I will give no lethal drug...advise such a plan" is about using a pessary to cause an abortion, another issue that has gained societal acceptance after its omission from the "contemporary" Oath.