My thanks to readers of this blog. Several entered into the surprisingly short comment thread in Time Magazine‘s “Fond Farewell” to Jack Kevorkian, which I wrote about last week. (Among other issues, the obituary referred to the people Kevorkian “helped” as ‘dying.)
Surprisingly, aside from one person who made the tired old “we’re kinder to our pets than to humans” argument – an argument that relies on mythology more than cold, hard reality, there was only one real representative from the ranks of the pro-euthanasia fanatics. Carol Loving, whose son Nicholas was an early addition to Kevorkian’s body count, makes it a practice to jump in any blog or online story where assisted suicide is being discussed. She doesn’t have much to add – her main purpose is to promote the book she wrote about her son’s death in a futile attempt to further cash in his suicide and her part in it. More about her later – from some other voices.
Diane Coleman (President and founder of NDY) jumped in with this comment:
Slightly more than half of Kevorkian’s reported assisted suicides were women with non-terminal disabilities. Many of these women had multiple sclerosis. One of his earliest was Sherry Miller. In The Suicide Machine, the Detroit Free Press described her as a woman who had been abandoned by her husband, who also took her children. Having known women with MS who raised children, I see Sherry Miller’s despair as having been caused, not by MS, but by her husband. As a disabled woman, I see Kevorkian as a serial killer who exploited women like Sherry Miller, who didn’t get the same suicide prevention a non-disabled woman would have a right to expect. The press who helped Kevorkian get away with it, by combining anti-disability bias with laziness in reporting about his “crusade”, should be ashamed.
Kendall Corbett, a disability advocate from Wyoming. Kendall is a disability advocate and a fellow “first generation” shunt recipient for childhood hydrocephalus. We met each other on a hydrocephalus email list sometime over 15 years ago. Here’s his comment, which really resonates with me on a personal level:
I find it disquieting that anyone convicted of murder would be givven a “fond farewell” by a national magazine, since his “claim to fame” was the very thing that led to his conviction.
I was born in 1960 with a condition (hydrocephalus) that very few survived and a much smaller percentage were perceived to have any “quality of life.” My parents were presented with the option of not treating the condition and letting “nature take its course.” They chose to treat it, and since then I’ve led a productive life, even though I have at least two secondary disabilities related to the condition that Dr. Kevorkian and his supporters might consider sufficient reasons to take the “final exit.”
John Kelly, a long-time NDY activist and friend who lives in Boston, wrote this:
The “plight of the dying?” As other commenters have repeatedly noted, most of his victims were not in any way “terminally ill”. But Time never did let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Her blog, My Private Casbah, covers the range of her varied interest and passions. I spent some time last weekend reading a number of her posts and I’ll be returning to read more. I’m someone who has to read a lot – and it’s wonderful when I find a blogger who is consistently a “good read” – a hard to define set of characteristics that means I look forward to reading the material instead of doing it mainly to see what information I can get out of it.
You can read her comments back at the Time magazine site, but you really have to go check out her entry on the obituary and her experiences in dealing with Carol Loving on the site.
Here’s the link to Jack Kevorkian and Carol Loving: Self-Promoting Partners in Crime, with an excerpt:
Stephen Drake, who maintains the Not Dead Yet commentary blog wrote about Time Magazine’s sloppy and inaccurate obituary for Dr. Jack Kevorkian (the serial killer of people with disabilities) in their “Person of the Year” issue. After reading Drake’s post, I went to post a comment on the magazine’s web edition of the obituary.
I read it and took a look at the comments that had already been left by others. One of them stood out. It was from Carol Loving (I know, the irony is just too much for me to address).
What I find bewildering about this article is the lack of factual knowledge about the doctor and his method of assisting the dying. I guess that is a sign of the times.
Dr. Kevorkian is the man of the century, the 20th century.
The most honest and dignified account of his service to mankind has been incorperated into a play, created in 2009, at Western Michigan University, in collaberation with Tectonic Theater Project.
The play is GOOD DEATH: A Community Conversation. In August of this year, the play received stellar reviews in Edinbugh, Scotland. It has the power to inspire all who see the performance.
We will see euthanasia follow the good works of Dr. Kevorkian !Carol Loving, Author
My Son, My Sorrow: The Tragic Tale of Dr. Kevorkian’s Youngest PatientI almost have choked upon reading this! This woman had a son, Nick Loving, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. When her son became depressed about his limitations and became suicidal, she wrote to Jack Kevorkian asking him to help her kill her son.
As you might imagine, she has quite a bit more to say. So please go and check out the rest of her excellent post at this link.
My thanks to everyone who jumped in and weighed in on this piece of journalistic fiction. –Stephen Drake