Phil
I think I'm with you on this, but I'm not sure. Dr. Kevorkian spoke up publically about what had been a controversial and very hushed subject. Yeah, he was an outspoken zealot. But I think it took someone like that to break the taboo. It's obvious that there are more than a few people with drastically opposing opinions on this subject. I know people, including doctors, who are outraged that anyone, especially another MD, could advocate suicide. I also know MDs who admit, in private, that doctor assisted suicide has gone on for as long as they can remember, and they agree it's a good thing.
My father and my mother in law both died of uncureable diseases, cancer and altzheimers dementia. Their final slow decline was difficult and painful for them as it was difficult for all of us to witness. Years later, my lasting feeling is that their deaths may have been inevitable, but no one should have to go through that slow final decline.
I heard the usual smart a$$ coments about Dr. Kevorkian's death - that he didn't do for himself what he advocated and helped others to do. Remember that until about a month before he died of lung and kidney failure as a result of pneumonia, he was apparently in decent health. He didn't face the long slow decline of an uncurable debilitating disease. I wish my father could have died that quickly, instead of with cancer. And it is for people with those diseases that Dr. Kevorkian offered a way out.
