The Price of Life (Assisted Suicide - Part II)

            There was a time when a guest would come to a dinner party and be expected to carry on conversations about politics and religion. Such was good manners and showed depth of character. In recent decades parents would caution their children that talking about politics and religion with dinner guests was rude. Naturally, assisted suicide is such a topic as it finds a way to be both. People would enjoy an after dinner coffee and say to each other, “So, what are your thoughts on euthanasia?” This is no longer the case. A recent Gallup pole suggests that support for assisted suicide is losing ground.

            Many Americans will remember the name Janet Adkins because she contacted a doctor to assist her in committing suicide after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Many more will remember the name of her doctor. Adkins, a resident of Oregon, had heard about a doctor in Michigan who had built a suicide machine. Not wanting to put her family and herself through the torment of a slow death, she contacted Dr. Jack Kevorkian and began making plans for her death.

            Adkins and her husband flew to Michigan and met Kevorkian for dinner where they discussed exactly how the procedure was to take place. Two days later, Kevorkian connected Adkins to his suicide machine. The machine was designed to intravenously release a deadly drug into the patient’s body upon the press of a button. The button was supposed to be pressed by the patient, theoretically insulating Kevorkian from any legal ramifications. Jack Kevorkian was charged with first degree murder in Michigan in 1990. Because Michigan had no assisted suicide laws, Kevorkian was not convicted.

            During the 1990’s Kevorkian was present at over 120 deaths, many dying in the back of the doctor’s Volkswagen bus which had been outfitted to carry the equipment necessary for the procedure. Euthanasia and assisted suicide became the “hot topic.” Kevorkian’s face littered the talk show circuit and he became the instant spokesman for assisted suicide. In 1994, Oregon passed “measure 16” which effectively legalized assisted suicide.

            In the fall of 1998, Kevorkian videotaped himself injecting Thomas Youk with a lethal dose of potassium chloride. The tape was aired during primetime on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Kevorkian was charged with second degree murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison. Assisted suicide was banned in the state of Michigan and Kevorkian began serving his sentence in 1999 at the age of 71. Jack Kevorkian was released on June 1, 2007 after having received time off for good behavior. Kevorkian was quoted as saying, “I’ll work to have it legalized. But I won’t break any laws doing it.”

            Despite the fact that all of this is recent history, the story has faded from the headlines. However the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of pop star, Michael Jackson, has somewhat revived the topic. Kevorkian recently stated that Jackson’s doctor should not be held responsible for the pop star’s death.

            Newcomers to the controversy may ask what reasons the two sides have for their beliefs. Not surprisingly the argument is somewhat complex. Some supporters of assisted suicide often argue that terminally ill patients have the right to die on their own terms, stating that people have a “right to die.” Others argue that some patients become unable to care for themselves and that they have the right to assisted suicide in order to maintain their dignity, coining the phrase “death with dignity.” Finally, still others argue that some patients are suffering so greatly that assisted suicide is the most humane thing to end the suffering of the patient and their family.

            Opponents of the assisted suicide movement are easier to recognize by the groups with which they identify. Religious fundamentalists claim that the taking of human life is a sin and therefore anyone involved in the taking of one’s own life is guilty of murder. Similar arguments are made by the “pro-life” constituency, although it is likely that the two groups are not mutually exclusive. Doctors argue that physicians are not meant to assist in the taking of life and that it violates their Hippocratic Oath.

            Despite both sides making clear arguments for their respective sides, the topic is still not as hotly debated as it once was. There are a number of reasons that the arguments have subsided. The first being the fact that Kevorkian was imprisoned and for the most part, he took his cause with him. Kevorkian was the man in the spotlight for almost a decade while America “made up their mind.” He made astounding strides in assisted suicides acceptance with the American populace and for a time it seemed inevitable. When Dr. Kevorkian was imprisoned there was no one left to interview. Certainly no one who was willing to remove both kidneys from a recently deceased patient and hold a press conference offering them to the first needy patient. Thus the topic was replaced with something a bit more contemporary.

            The 1990’s were the perfect stage for Kevorkian’s activism. The Cable News Network was gaining popularity and provided round the clock coverage of Kevorkian and his demonstrations. The internet made information much more readily available and aided in connecting patient with doctor. Even as Kevorkian went to trial for murder, Court TV was on hand to showcase the charismatic Dr. Kevorkian and his patented sound bytes for anyone willing to watch. Never before could the average American be so “plugged in” to a topic as this. It is no surprise then that ten years after Kevorkian’s imprisonment, he and his cause have fallen by the wayside for fresher topics.

Since Kevorkian’s imprisonment, the United States has faced Y2K, Tiger Woods, 9/11, George W. Bush, Space Shuttle Columbia, Saddam Hussein, Afghanistan, Iraq, George W. Bush again, Hurricane Katrina, Nancy Pelosi, Barry Bonds, and finally Barack Obama. It’s hard to say that we’ve been waiting for Kevorkian’s release with baited breath, and even after his release he made it very clear that he would still be an activist for his cause but would no longer challenge the status quo as he had in the past.

Changes in political climate have made assisted suicide old news. In the past year there have been radical changes in the ways the government is being run. For the first time since 1994 both houses of congress are democrat led, coupled with an unpredictable new president and an ongoing war, assisted suicide seems to have taken the back burner for the time being. Issues like healthcare, social security, and the economy have taken the spotlight away from Kevorkian and assisted suicide, but the controversy remains bubbling under the front page.

It’s important that dialogue on this and other social topics is maintained in order to effectively govern ourselves. A recent Gallup pole suggests that support for assisted suicide is losing ground but America is a living thing and what may be legal today may not be tomorrow. As long as the law reflects the will of the people; justice is being done.