Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the well-known advocate of assisted suicide, has come under scrutiny again, but this time for a plan that he says would save lives.
Kevorkian hopes to establish a system whereby he can donate the organs of the patients whom he helps die. The plan, announced on October 22, met immediate criticism. For one thing, detractors say, donated organs should come from otherwise healthy donors who have died accidental deaths. Because Kevorkian’s patients are seriously ill, they are unlikely to have healthy organs. Secondly, Kevorkian’s removing the organs himself would constitute practicing medicine with a suspended license. Also, most hospitals will not take a harvested organ without the permission of the family of the deceased.
Speaking to reporters, Kevorkian and his lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said that organs would be made available on a first-come, first-served basis, but they provided few other details.
Aside from the logistics of the plan, critics objected to it on moral and ethical grounds. One opponent, quoted by the Detroit Free Press, compared Kevorkian to Hitler and claimed that Kevorkian was "trying to play God." Another said that Kevorkian’s actions were becoming "a parade of horrors."
In Kevorkian’s 1991 book, Prescription: Medicide, he outlined a three-pronged plan. The first called for the implementation of assisted-suicide, and the second described organ donation. In the third part of the plan, patients who want to kill themselves would receive irreversible anesthesia and undergo experimentation by doctors before dying.
For Your Information:
The Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/news/extra2/qkevo23.htm and http://detnews.com/1997/metro/9710/24/10240088.htm
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