OPINIONS

"I am grateful you are my friend. I am even more grateful you’re not my physician."

- Adam Mazer

Dr. Jack Kevorkian
The Pathologist and Assisted Suicide Advocate

By Prof. Talaat I. Farag

He was born in 1929 in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1952 then went into pathology. He became interested in euthanasia during his internship year as a result of watching a middle aged woman die of cancer.

In June 1990, he drove his Volkswagen to a secluded park north of Detroit with an Alzheimer’s patient, 54-year-old Janet Atkins of Portland. It was there that he inserted a needle into her arm giving her a lethal drug and the deadly carbon monoxide gas.

He was convinced that assisted-suicide was legitimate ethical medical practice used in ancient Rome and Greece. He believed that doctors could harvest organs and perform medical experiments during the suicide process.

In 1991, he wrote his book, Prescription Medicide-The Goodness of Planned Death. In 1996, he was sentenced to prison for 8 years and was freed in June 2007 suffering from Hepatitis C and diabetes. The following year, he ran for Congress as an independent receiving only 2.7% of the vote in his suburban Detroit district.

The retired pathologist said that he oversaw the suicides of 130 gravely ill people. He raised a debate over doctor-assisted suicide. Last June, the 83 year old Kevorkian died in a Michigan hospital after he had being admitted with pneumonia and kidney problems.

He earned the nickname "Dr. Death" but Kevorkian likened himself to Martin Luther King and Gandhi and called physicians who did not support him hypocritical oafs.

Many perceive helping people commit suicide in the back of a van as not dying with dignity. While those who sought Kevorkian’s help typically suffered from cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), paralysis, or Lou Gehrigs’s disease.

Adam Mazer, the Emmy-winner and author of the TV series, You Don’t Know Jack, said “I am grateful you are my friend. I am even more grateful you’re not my physician."

His attorney who represented him in court during his trial, Mr. Geoffrey Feiger, mentioned “it is a rate human being who understands intellectually and emotionally the freedoms contained in our constitution and the right of every individual to take decision on their life, consistent with their own conscience and without the interference of government.

Some American States made assisted suicide legal: Oregon 1997,  Washington State 2009, Montana 2009. The State of New Hampshire is currently considering euthanasia bills.

Euthanasia is currently in the Netherlands and Belgium, and assisted suicide is legal in Albania and Luxembourg.

In medical ethics, all doctors read the Hippocratic Oath as I recall when I graduated from Ain Shams University, the same year that Jack Kevorkian graduated as well.

His life and actions raised an important topic: We must continue trying to improve medicine and the treatment of diseases that cause intolerable pain - yet physicians must never forget the Oath the took when they first started practicing their profession.

Hippocratic Oath (Original)   I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, AEsculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation. TO RECHON him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look up his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according the law of medicine, but to none others. I WILL FOLLOW that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give a woman a pessary to produce abortion. WITH PURITY AND WITH HOLINESS I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. WHATEVER, IN CONNECTION with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. WHILE I CONTINUE to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!