Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June

Nothingman54 · December 2006

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN - Associated Press Writer

LANSING, Mich.(AP) After more than eight years in prison, a frail Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June with a promise that he won't assist in any more suicides, a prison spokesman said Wednesday.

Leo Lalonde, the corrections spokesman, would not provide further details.

Kevorkian, once the nation's most vocal advocate of assisted suicide for the terminally ill, is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998.

Youk's death was videotaped and shown on CBS' "60 Minutes."

Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted in at least 130 deaths in the 1990s, called it a mercy killing.

Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian's attorney, said this summer that Kevorkian, now 78, was suffering from hepatitis C and diabetes, that his weight had dropped to 113 pounds and that he had less than a year to live.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm ordered corrections authorities to carry out an independent medical evaluation of Kevorkian, but did not commute the retired pathologist's sentence, as Morganroth had hoped.

Kevorkian has always been eligible for parole on June 1, 2007, and will now be released on that date, Lalonde said. He directed calls seeking further comment to Russ Marlan, another state corrections spokesman who did not immediately return calls Wednesday.

If Kevorkian is released on June 1, he will have spent close to 3,000 days in prison since being sentenced in April 1999.

He has promised he would not assist in a suicide if he was released from prison.

I guess my question is do you think his time was served? Or do you think he never should have gone to jail in the first place?

Ahnimus · December 2006

Probably never should have gone in the first place.

sapperskunk · December 2006

Kevorkian is my Grandmas maiden name.

Heatherj43 · December 2006

Supposedly he has less than a year to live due to health issues. He may not make it til June. I wish he could get out now!

chopitdown · December 2006

a. his time is served.

b. it was right to send him to prison.

sponger · December 2006

Given his health, one has to wonder if he will be assisting with just one more suicide.

mookie blaylock 10 · December 2006

Ahnimus wrote:

Probably never should have gone in the first place.

agreed.

macgyver06 · December 2006

chopitdown wrote:

a. his time is served.

b. it was right to send him to prison.

he didnt do anything wrong

The Waiting Trophy Man · December 2006

macgyver06 wrote:

he didnt do anything wrong

exactly. he helped people die with dignity when they were terminally ill and in pain. i believe the last person he helped was suffering from lou gehrig's disease, which is one of the worst things you can possibly imagine. kevorkian is a saint in my book.

VINNY GOOMBA · December 2006

sponger wrote:

Given his health, one has to wonder if he will be assisting with just one more suicide.

ya know, I was thinkin the same thing. You'd have to think if he was doin pretty shitty that he's gonna do himself in, right?

jeffbr · December 2006

He should be considered a hero, rather than a criminal.

prljmfan92502 · December 2006

macgyver06 wrote:

he didnt do anything wrong

I don't think he did anything wrong. My mother recently died from emphysema and it was very painful watching her suffer, in and out of the hospital and nursing homes. Why? Because the rest of my family(especially my dad) were too selfish and uninformed to let her die at home with hospice, which would have made it so much easier for her. So, what Kavourkian did was help these people who were suffering and had no one elso who understood what they were going through, to turn to, to end their pain and suffering. I don't think that i personally could perform the mercy killings, but i can tell you that i wish that my mom wouldn't have had to suffer so long. She was on a respirator for 14 days, which means having to lay on your back the whole time. I guess because the bp drops when you put them on their side. So, as a result of that, she had the most horribly painful bed sore which she said was the most pain she had ever endured. They were giving her so much pain and nerve medication just to help, but it only just took the edge off. I believe that it was the bed sore that finally took her. She had got a blood infection and there was nothing else they could do for her. They told us that a healthy 30 yr old only has a fifty percent chance of surviving the infection. She was 70 and very ill, so they just gave her morphine and kept her comfortable until she passed.

I didn't mean to get so deep, but i just wanted to give you guys my point of view. She went through un-needed hell. I tried to tell my family, but i'm the "black sheep", and "i don't know anything". So, they never listen to me.

I love my mom, she was a strong woman. God rest her soul.

jeffbr · December 2006

prljmfan92502 wrote:

I love my mom, she was a strong woman. God rest her soul.

I am so sorry for your loss. It is precisely these kind of stories that cause me to be so passionate about peoples' right to die with dignity instead of our obsession with prolonging life at whatever cost.

hippiemom · December 2006

prljmfan92502 wrote:

I don't think he did anything wrong. My mother recently died from emphysema and it was very painful watching her suffer, in and out of the hospital and nursing homes. Why? Because the rest of my family(especially my dad) were too selfish and uninformed to let her die at home with hospice, which would have made it so much easier for her. So, what Kavourkian did was help these people who were suffering and had no one elso who understood what they were going through, to turn to, to end their pain and suffering. I don't think that i personally could perform the mercy killings, but i can tell you that i wish that my mom wouldn't have had to suffer so long. She was on a respirator for 14 days, which means having to lay on your back the whole time. I guess because the bp drops when you put them on their side. So, as a result of that, she had the most horribly painful bed sore which she said was the most pain she had ever endured. They were giving her so much pain and nerve medication just to help, but it only just took the edge off. I believe that it was the bed sore that finally took her. She had got a blood infection and there was nothing else they could do for her. They told us that a healthy 30 yr old only has a fifty percent chance of surviving the infection. She was 70 and very ill, so they just gave her morphine and kept her comfortable until she passed.

I didn't mean to get so deep, but i just wanted to give you guys my point of view. She went through un-needed hell. I tried to tell my family, but i'm the "black sheep", and "i don't know anything". So, they never listen to me.

I love my mom, she was a strong woman. God rest her soul.

I'm so sorry your mom had to go through that, prljmfan, and you too. My mom has a lot of health problems, and going through something like this is one of my deepest fears. No need to apologize for getting deep ... as painful as I'm sure it is for you to talk about, stories like this are what people need to consider before they pass judgment on someone like Dr. Kevorkian.

As far as I'm concerned, he's a hero. I hope that the laws will be changed before I or any of my loved ones find ourselves in a similar situation, but unfortunately I don't think it's likely. I will never understand why people find it necessary to prolong a person's suffering.

chopitdown · December 2006

macgyver06 wrote:

he didnt do anything wrong

oh really? Then why is he in jail?

You prob mean, you don't consider what he did to be wrong. i consider it to be wrong. Difference of opinion.

I watched my grandmother, grandfather and aunt die from cancer so I can understand why people would want to use his service. But I just don't feel a physician should do what he did.

jeffbr · December 2006

chopitdown wrote:

oh really? Then why is he in jail?

He was in jail because people who are opposed to self-determination, choice, and the right to die with dignity took it upon themselves to legislate their twisted notion of the sanctity of life at any and every cost.

macgyver06 · December 2006

chopitdown wrote:

oh really? Then why is he in jail?

You prob mean, you don't consider what he did to be wrong. i consider it to be wrong. Difference of opinion.

I watched my grandmother, grandfather and aunt die from cancer so I can understand why people would want to use his service. But I just don't feel a physician should do what he did.

you have to be a special kind of doctor/person to risk you entire career..your entire lifes work because you care this much about a person you may not even know, but to know you don't want them to suffer and to know that they know what they want.

he went to jail because people don't worry about themselves, and don't respect themselves, setting laws against something that doesnt concern them.

macgyver06 · December 2006

you may not agree chopitdown...and that makes you part of the problem.

macgyver06 · December 2006

chopitdown wrote:

oh really? Then why is he in jail?

You prob mean, you don't consider what he did to be wrong. i consider it to be wrong. Difference of opinion.

I watched my grandmother, grandfather and aunt die from cancer so I can understand why people would want to use his service. But I just don't feel a physician should do what he did.

oh and dont twist my words around...i meant he did nothing wrong.

because he didn't...its not opinion...you can twist whatever you want around..but to damn a hero is wrong...

oh and matisyahu isnt that great

macgyver06 · December 2006

chopitdown wrote:

oh really? Then why is he in jail?

You prob mean, you don't consider what he did to be wrong. i consider it to be wrong. Difference of opinion.

I watched my grandmother, grandfather and aunt die from cancer so I can understand why people would want to use his service. But I just don't feel a physician should do what he did.

dork

chopitdown · December 2006

jeffbr wrote:

He was in jail because people who are opposed to self-determination, choice, and the right to die with dignity took it upon themselves to legislate their twisted notion of the sanctity of life at any and every cost.

you're assuming a right to die exists. And legally (which is why Kevorkian went to jail) it is very difficult to prove.

Also, i guess since i am affiliated with the medical profession I have a huge problem with a physician helping someone die. The American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath, has held that physicians may intend to save lives and relieve suffering, but they may not intend as their primary purpose the deaths of their patients.

Now if someone wants to OD on antifreeze / drugs (that they obtained some other way) or blow their brains out, that's their decision. My opinion is that a medical professional should not help that end be met, as in assisted suicide. I'm not even getting into the right to die debate here, b/c i know where people stand and it's not worth it. My problem is with a medical professional doing it.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June

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