The Lighter Side of Kevorkian’s Death (humor and satire alert)

assisted suicide, humor, in memorium, Kevorkian, Our News & Commentary Blog, satire

I figured there might be more of this, but here are a couple of very irreverent reactions to Kevorkian’s death.

Andy Borowitz writes that Paul Ryan Vows to Continue Kevorkian’s Work:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In a somber Congressional ceremony, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) eulogized the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian today, vowing to “honor his legacy by continuing his good work.”

“Dr. Kevorkian tried to ease the transition of seniors into the great beyond,” an emotional Rep. Ryan told his colleagues in the House of Representatives.  “Here in Congress, we have the opportunity – one might even say the obligation – to continue Kevorkian’s work on a grander scale.”

As a first step to memorialize the work of Dr. Kevorkian, Rep. Ryan said that his new budget plan would replace Medicare with a system of so-called “Kevouchers” that could be redeemed for cyanide pills, nooses and bullets. (h/t to Marilyn Golden and Sheila Boyd)

And from The Onion:

Man Dies All By Himself.  (h/t) to April Shiebler

There’s another one I found over the weekend, but it brings up some issues that merit a separate post, which will come later today.  –Stephen Drake

Some Information resources on Jack Kevorkian

assisted suicide, devaluation, Kevorkian, Our News & Commentary Blog, protests

I suspect that over  the next few days we might see some first-time visitors to this blog – and many of them will be curious as to just what kind of factual information is out there about Kevorkian that is absent in just about all of the media coverage.  Below is a non-exhaustive list of some easily accessible sources that give you some information on Jack Kevorkian’s background, career and motivations.  A lot of it will be completely new information to you – if you’ve been getting you’re info from sources such as the New York Times or HBO’s “You Don’t Know Jack.”

Also of Interest…

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE ENTITLED TO DIGNITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: A STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO HONORING DR. JACK KEVORKIAN – From 2000, a statement opposing the Gleitsman Foundation’s plans to honor Jack Kevorkian with a “humanitarian” award.  The statement is endorsed by a long list of leaders and activists in the realm of social justice, including Bob Kafka, Martin Sheen, Paul Longmore and Justin Dart.

More to come – Stephen Drake

PRESS RELEASE: NDY Activists React to News of Kevorkian’s Death

assisted suicide, diane coleman, euthanasia, Kevorkian, media coverage, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, press release, stephen drake

For Immediate Release
June 3, 2011
Contact:
Stephen Drake, Research Analyst
585-697-1640; sndrake@aol.com
Diane Coleman, President
708-420-0539; ndycoleman@aol.com
Disability Activists React to News of Kevorkian’s Death
Anti-euthanasia disability rights group formed in response to Kevorkian’s 1996 acquittal in deaths of two disabled women
Challenge members of the media to get their facts straight.
(Rochester, NY) Approximately ten years after his attorney filed the first of four annual appeals for early prison release repeatedly claiming Kevorkian had less than a year to live, Jack Kevorkian died today at the age of 83.
Today, speaking from their office in Rochester, NY, two spokespersons for the grassroots disability rights organization Not Dead Yet made the following statements:
“While it may be culturally correct to refrain from speaking ill of the dead, the fact is that like many other disability activists, I viewed Kevorkian as an opportunist and an exploiter of other people’s despair.  Many chronically ill and disabled people got suicide assistance from him when some help ending social isolation, spousal or family abandonment, discrimination, and financial troubles would have led them to want to go on with their lives,” said Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake. 
“As a disabled woman, I was disgusted and alarmed with how easily society accepted and even applauded Kevorkian’s “help” in the suicides of disabled women.  Like many women, I’ve gone through periods of isolation and desperation – and was lucky to have friends see that I needed support,” said Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet.  “It seems that when a disabled woman says she wants to kill herself that no one – not the Kevorkian juries, not the press, not even many people in the general public – look for reasons beyond the wheelchair the woman sits in as a valid reason for wanting to die.”
Drake added that the initial wave of press coverage announcing Kevorkian’s death has perpetuated the totally inaccurate description of Kevorkian’s body count as people who were “terminally ill.”  He mentioned the New York Times, New York Magazine and Huffington Post as specific examples of sloppy and inaccurate reporting.  In contrast, studies reported in such publications as the New England Journal of Medicine have concluded that seventy percent of those assisted by Kevorkian were disabled and not terminal.
Both Coleman and Drake attended the trial of Jack Kevorkian on second degree murder charges due to his televised killing of Thomas Youk through lethal injection.  Youk had Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  Not Dead Yet organized an ongoing courtroom presence as well as a daily vigil outside the Oakland County Courthouse, in which over 50 disability activists participated at one time or another.
Diane Coleman and Stephen Drake have written and lectured extensively on Jack Kevorkian, his history, and his importance to the pro-euthanasia movement.  They are available for media interviews using the contact information at the top of this release.
About Not Dead Yet: Not Dead Yet was founded on April 27,1996, shortly after Jack Kevorkian was acquitted in the assisted suicides of two women with non-terminal disabilities. In a 1997 Supreme Court rally, the outcry of 500 people with disabilities chanting “Not Dead Yet” was heard around the world. Since then, eleven other national disability rights groups have joined NDY in opposing legalized assisted suicide, chapters have taken action in over 30 states, and we helped put Jack Kevorkian behind bars in 1999.  Not Dead Yet continues to help lead and organize the disability community in resisting the legalization of assisted suicide, euthanasia and other public policy proposals that threaten the lives of people with disabilities.
Contact:
Not Dead Yet, 497 State Street, Rochester  NY  14608
Phone: 585-697-1640
###

Five Things a “TakePart.com” Author Really DIDN’T Know About Assisted Suicide

Allan MacDonell, assisted suicide, euthanasia, final exit network, Oregon, Our News & Commentary Blog, pets, reality check, slippery slope, Switzerland, TakePart.com

You learn something new every day.  Before today, I was totally unaware of the multimedia website Takepart.com, which describes itself this way:

TakePart is a digital media company with a singular mission: To make participating in positive change easy, rewarding, and part of everyday life. The articles, videos and actions we create build awareness of issues that shape our lives and culture, and provide ways to make a difference.

TakePart is a website, for one, and also a Social Action Network that includes individuals, NGOs, online communities and brands who share a common interest in making the world a better place. We are a division of Participant Media, which has produced culture-shifting films such as An Inconvenient Truth, The Cove, and Waiting for Superman.

To date, Participant has developed programs and active, working relationships with more than 300 non-profits. Collectively, we have the potential to reach more than 75 million people.

So they’re your typical bunch of affluent and well-connected self-proclaimed progressives who want to somehow put a bunch of different issues into that one box labeled “progressive.”

What called my attention to the site was something that appeared in my news feed titled “5 Things You Need to Know: Doctor Assisted Suicide.” 

The article – by Allan MacDonell – should have carried the more accurate title of “5 Things I Think I Know About Doctor Assisted Suicide”

The picture below – obviously of Not Dead Yet protesters at the Supreme Court – is posted along with MacDonell’s article.  You’d think, then, he’d know something about people with  disabilities and our concerns about assisted suicide and euthanasia.

The article gives no evidence of Mr. MacDonell having read anything at all by NDY – on our old website, any of our published articles, or material on this blog.

Mr. MacDonell’s “need to know” items are mostly misinformation and “straw man” version of anti assisted suicide/euthanasia arguments.

Here’s his opening:

Americans disagree on many things, and doctor-assisted suicide is the thing they disagree on the hardest. Oddly, veterinarians seem to be immune from the assisted-death controversy, despite the fact that almost every former kid in the country has at one time submitted a beloved pet to be “put to sleep.” An anti-euthanasia activist will be hard-pressed to find a person, other than a potential serial killer, who will assert that Scruffy or Spot or Balthazar would have been better served to wheeze out a few extra last days while being starved to death in a joy-blocking haze of pain, medication and intrusive surgical procedures.

Before even going into his “need to know” list, MacDonell perpetuates the myth that all pets are “put down” by loving owners because the animals are terminally ill and in pain.  As discussed on this blog and in an article I coauthored with Dick Sobsey, a minority of pets are euthanized because they are terminally ill and in pain.  One of the most recent factors in an increased rate of pet euthanasia is the economic downturn – people can’t afford their pets and have them euthanized – or abandon them to a shelter that does it.

So what about those “need to know” items?

I’ll leave those who read this blog to read the original article for the content of the first three items, which discuss the difference between euthansia and assisted suicide, death through withdrawal of feeding tube, and that assisted suicide is mostly what the author calls a “criminal mercy” in the US.

Number four is the one that gets to the real source of some of the most important distortions and omissions:

4) Meet four arguments that oppose assisted suicide. A) Improvements in hospice and palliative care have made physician-assisted suicide unnecessary. B) Patients have no right to cheapen the value of human life by seeking help in ending their own. C) Physician-assisted suicide is the first mossy flagstone on a slippery slope to officially sanctioned human depravity, sliding into the pit of involuntary euthanasia for persons with mental illnesses, physical handicaps or any characteristics deemed unsavory. D) Any physician who assists in a suicide violates the Hippocratic Oath to “first, do no harm.”

In A) the claim is partially true.  What’s left out is that pro-assisted suicide advocates are saying that the availability of palliative care is irrelevant to a person’s desire to get help to commit suicide.  Relatively few people who die under the Oregon law cite pain as a reason for wanting to commit suicide – the reasons of not wanting to be a burden or fear of losing autonomy are much more common.  As for B) – Frankly I have never heard the argument put quite that way by anyone – especially in the disability community.

As for item C) – with the snarky wording about the “first mossy flagstone on a slippery slope,” we’ve already slid – and continue to do so thanks to the advocacy of the pro-euthanasia/assisted suicide movement. Has MacDonell never heard of that (cough) sweet little old lady selling “suicide kits” to anyone who wants them and pays her 60 dollars?  Never heard of the Final Exit Network?  The group of “suicide vigilantes” who help just about anyone commit suicide because they don’t believe any law – including Oregon’s – gives people enough freedom to get “help” in committing suicide.

Then there is number 5 on the list:

5) Assisted suicide has spawned its own tourist industry. Switzerland, a prosperous European country of snowy Alps, pristine lakes and excellent watches and chocolate, has many attractions to tempt the leisured and sophisticated traveler. However, if you’re planning a trip to the Swiss skiing slopes, you might want to wait until you feel a lot more wretched and pessimistic about the coming days. Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1941. One local company, Dignitas, has helped 1,138 people die over the past 13 years—with clients hailing from Germany, Great Britain and France. Zurich’s voters recently shot down a proposed ban on suicide tourism with a 78 percent majority, disagreeing hardly at all.

This is all true.  But the enormous support the public shows for Dignitas argues against the author’s implied premise that “slippery slopes” are nothing to worry about.  You see, Mr. MacDonell forgot to mention that Dignitas will facilitate the suicide of anyone – young, old, healthy, ill, disabled, able-bodied – it doesn’t matter to Dignitas.  They’ll help you as long as you can pay their pretty exorbitant fees.

I’m used to people who think they are somehow progressive disagreeing with disability activists and advocates on these issues.  What I have never gotten used to is the willingness of these same folks to render us invisible or distort our true positions in this important public policy debate.

We’re not stupid, paranoid, or delusional.  We’ve just been paying attention. –Stephen Drake

Note – Couple of minor edits made today.  One spelling error and a two-word omission in a sentence pointed out to me by Allan MacDonell.

Breaking News: Jack Kevorkian in Hospital

assisted suicide, Kevorkian, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check

From the Huffington Post:

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — A lawyer says assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian is in a Detroit-area hospital with pneumonia and kidney problems.

Mayer (MAY’-uhr) Morganroth says Kevorkian was reluctant but agreed to go to Beaumont Hospital on Wednesday night. He predicts Kevorkian will be there for several days.

Mr. Morganroth wanted to assure fans of Kevorkian that things will be OK, though.:

Kevorkian turns 83 next week. Morganroth says his health is not in grave danger but “it’s not a good thing right now.”

I wouldn’t put great faith in any health assessment by Mr. Morganroth.  This is the same guy who filed appeals for Kevorkian’s early release from prison four years in a row – and in each brief claimed that Kevorkian had “less than a year to live.”

Here’s how that tidbit was made public, even though it was promptly forgotten by the press and the public:

Like the boy who cried “wolf,” Mayer Morganroth claimed – year after year – that Kevorkian had “less than a year to live” in his efforts to win an early release for his client. This was laid out and confirmed in an Associated Press story that appeared on December 14th of last year (link is no longer operational):

Some object to Kevorkian’s upcoming release from prison
12/14/2006, 5:34 p.m. ET
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press

(excerpt)
Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group based in Forest Park, Ill., also said it was disappointed that Kevorkian would be released in June.

“We won’t forget the struggling disabled people he preyed upon. And we won’t be silent,” the group said in a statement.

It added that it expected that the 78-year-old Kevorkian, after leaving prison, will show a “near-miraculous `recovery'” from his health problems, which include diabetes, hepatitis C, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries in his brain and vertigo, according to his attorney.

“We were suspicious his health problems were greatly exaggerated when his lawyer filed appeals for four years in a row claiming Kevorkian was essentially on the brink of death,” the group said.

***

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said all requests to have sentences commuted for health reasons must first go to the Corrections Department and then to the parole board, which recommends to the governor whether the request should be honored.

Boyd said Morganroth already has made four such requests, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and earlier this year.”In each instance he indicated that Dr. Jack Kevorkian had less than a year to live,” she said.

So don’t put any faith in what Morganroth has to say about Kevorkian’s health now.  –Stephen Drake