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Opinions Are Like Anthills is an eclectic collection of social, political, and environmental issues facing our world today. The book comes complete with a checklist allowing the reader to keep track of how many times they agreed or disagreed with the almighty Anthill.
114 pages/Published in 2009
Assisted Suicide…
Many laws are fashioned after certain religious beliefs. Suicide is no different. Most religions view suicide as an obstacle to the afterlife. In many countries, the taking of one’s own life is illegal in addition to being considered immoral. And even in places where suicide is legal, any assistance offered by someone else is generally illegal.
This particular discussion however is about euthanasia or assisted suicide, rather than suicide itself. And since we are discussing assisted suicide, I’d be rather remiss not to mention Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a name synonymous with the assisted suicide/right to die debate. The Michigan pathologist began advertising his services (“Death Counseling”) in Detroit newspapers beginning in 1987. He claims to have assisted in more than 130 physician-assisted suicides. In 1990, his medical license was stripped away for assisting terminally ill individuals in their quest to die. He was famously quoted as saying “dying is not a crime”. Both brash and controversial, Kevorkian averred that he only assisted his patients by attaching them to a euthanasia device which he designed. The machine dubbed “Thanatron”, meaning death machine, delivered lethal drugs through an IV after a button was depressed by the patient. But after his medical privileges were garnished, Kevorkian lost legal access to the drug cocktails. This however didn’t stop Kevorkian from assisting suicides, instead he merely changed tactics and began using a carbon monoxide canister attached to a gas mask which he adduced the moniker “Mercitron”, or mercy machine.
Although Kevorkian was dragged into court on many occasions, he was acquitted time after time because he hadn’t actually pulled the trigger so to speak on the death machine. He slowly achieved celebrity status, staging publicity stunts, hunger strikes, and one time he even wore a powdered wig to trial. Each new acquittal garnered more fame and public support. Eventually it got to the point where the taxpayers of Oakland County Michigan were all but fed up with the county spending their hard-earned taxpayer dollars on cases they continually lost.
Unfortunately for Kevorkian, he went too far, straying from that gray, safe area that kept him out of prison. In November of 1998 he allowed the airing of a videotape on 60 Minutes depicting a suicide in which he had assisted with five days previously. The assisted suicide of Thomas Youk, a 52 year-old suffering through the final stages of ALS proved to be Kevorkian’s undoing, chiefly because it was the first time that Kevorkian himself administered the lethal injection. Grandstanding, Kevorkian dared the authorities to put an end to his consensual “mercy killings”. Prosecutors had no choice but to proffer up first-degree murder charges. Kevorkian dismissed his legal team and defended himself (not the smartest move) and wound up being convicted of second-degree murder in 1999. He was sent off to prison with a 10-25 year sentence. His health failing, he was granted parole for good behavior on June 1st, 2007. Here’s a little something I didn’t know about Kevorkian…He’s an avid artist and jazz musician, although I understand his paintings are somewhat dark as he occasionally proffers up his own blood for paint and one of his portraits actually depicts a toddler gnawing on a decomposing corpse.
Lately, there has been a lot of attention devoted by various media sources concerning the controversial July 10th, 2009 assisted suicides of a married couple from Great Britain; Sir Edward and Lady Jane Downes. Lady Jane, 74, suffered from terminal cancer and thus her suicide was not deemed quite as controversial. Sir Edward’s untimely death at the age of 85 on the other hand, was seen as quite controversial. Sir Edward, a celebrated conductor, might not have been suffering from terminal cancer, but he was afflicted by varying levels of deafness, blindness, and frailty. I believe what really made the case shocking to some was the fact that the couple entered into a suicide pact, choosing to drink barbiturates and die peacefully in the company of their son and daughter at a suicide clinic in Switzerland.
Off to Switzerland…
I realize that the Alps are truly a magnificent place in which to end one’s days on earth, but is this “death tourism” really necessary? Should people have to fly all the way to Switzerland in order to kill themselves? I mean we’re not talking about people that felt a little blue. We’re talking about seriously ill people who want to cease an enormous suffering. I don’t believe anyone has the right to bar someone from ending their own suffering, especially not a government. The decision is personal and familial…Not bureaucratic.
The Other End of the Spectrum...
Unfortunately, there are far too many perfectly healthy (at least physically) individuals who choose to end their own life. These cases are both tragic and devastating for everyone involved. However, these cases have little to do with the discussion of euthanasia or assisted suicide…Or at least usually anyway. There was however a 2002 case in Michigan that ran contrary to this line of reasoning. Kathleen Kay Holey, a 43 year-old mother conspired with her 19 year-old son and daughter in-law to undertake a suicide pact. Apparently Holey overheard the troubled young couple (they recently had their eight month-old baby taken away by child services) discussing the idea of suicide and allegedly told them that she thought it was a good plan. She then went out to a pharmacy and filled one of her own prescriptions before gathering up her son and daughter-in-law. The trio stopped off for a meal at McDonald’s before heading to an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Holey then supervised while the two 19 year-olds downed the pills and waited to die. Holey’s son died, but her daughter-in-law lived after receiving medical intervention. Not exactly the model scenario for assisted suicide is it.
My Call: Allow assisted suicide in reasonable situations. Read reasonable…In other words…Feeling blue over your recent teenage breakup is not reasonable grounds for assistance to die.