Assisted Suicide- Jack Kevorkian changes...

[Evanescence]

his mind...or so he says....

Is assisted suicide immoral if done in the case of terminal illness? Should people be allowed to end their life if terminally ill?

Its a difficult question...difficult to judge unless you were in their shoes.....:rolleyes: :(

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/doctor-death-asks-for-mercy/20060701112309990001?ncid =NWS00010000000001

(June 30) - Jack Kevorkian, the euthanasia crusader who claims to have assisted in more than 130 suicides, now says he should have instead concentrated his efforts on working to pass legislation allowing doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives.

Kevorkian's proclaimed change of heart comes just as he is asking Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to commute his second-degree murder conviction and release him after seven years in prison.

Earlier this month, for the fourth consecutive year, the Michigan Parole Board rejected Kevorkian's request for parole on the medical grounds that he suffers from hepatitis and diabetes.

According to his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, the 78-year-old Kevorkian is "a dying man" who has withered away to 113 pounds. Kevorkian was convicted in April 1999 of killing Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old man with Lou Gehrig's disease whose death was videotaped and broadcast on the CBS program "60 Minutes." He was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison.

In a series of written exchanges with ABC News, Kevorkian now says he regrets some of his actions involving assisted suicide, saying, "I should have worked toward legalization only."

Not everyone is convinced Kevorkian has truly experienced a change of heart.

Tina Allerellie, whose sister Karen killed herself with Kevorkian's help in 1997, does not believe that Kevorkian has genuinely changed his mind about assisted suicide.

"I believe he has his own agenda. Right now, it's based on 'Oh, I'm sick, please let me out,'" Allerellie says, adding that Kevorkian "killed my sister ... and dropped a bomb on my family."

Her sister, 34-year-old Karen Shofstall, suffered from multiple sclerosis, but Allerellie says she was depressed and hopeless when Kevorkian "preyed" on her.

But the brother of Thomas Youk, the man whose death led to Kevorkian's murder conviction, believes Michigan's governor should free him from prison. Terry Youk says, "I don't believe it was a crime, but at this point his health is so feeble I really don't think that he'll last another year in prison."

Oakland County, Mich., prosecutor David Gorcya told ABC News that Kevorkian can get adequate medical care in prison until he is eligible for parole in June 2007. Gorcya says he will not oppose Kevorkian's release from prison at that time.

Now old and frail, perhaps near the end of his own life, Kevorkian is hanging his hopes for an earlier end to prison time on the mercy of Michigan's governor. At the end of his handwritten correspondence with ABC News, Kevorkian quotes the writer William Saroyan: "Prison crushes the spirit out of most men. And without spirit nothing of substance or value can be achieved, let alone hoped for."


07-01-06 11:25 EDT

[SacredHeart]

It seems to me the only thing that's changed is his tactics (which would have kept him out of prison), not his ideology.

Suicide is a difficult topic because emotions run high with regard to this subject. Seeing somebody suffer can become a form of suffering, in and of itself, and so it's no wonder that, in our compassion, we seek to end the suffering of both the "victim" (for lack of a better word) and ours, the "bystander".

I've thought about this issue over the years and what keeps me coming back to the "suicide is wrong" position is because it is an act that, at its core, denies the supremacy of God. While I don't think most people who commit suicide or support assisted suicide have a "god-complex", I do believe that at its root is unbelief. Unbelief that God is supreme--Unbelief that God is their Creator, Provider, Healer, Sufficiency, Strength, Hope, etc...

So why do I think God does not condone suicide? Because the opposite of faith is unbelief and scripture tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

[kiwisongbird]

My aunty, many years ago was a nurse in a hospice. She said many times the doctors would just make the dose of drugs a little higher for the patients - not up to killing height, but just a little more, a little more and then patients would just die a little earlier. It was no big deal then. It was people who were on the way to going and all that happened was that they went in a more peaceful way.

I guess that would have been murder then? I never thought so. I always thought it was a kind, gentle thing to do.

I think helping somone who is depressed to kill themselves is different though.

[Mugirl04]

I think it is wrong. Let God take them in his own time

[mat1583]

I think it is wrong. Let God take them in his own time

Regardless of any moral and religious implications, why on earth can the government tell you when you think it's time to end your life? Why do they have the right over you to tell you that you should go on suffering with some terrible illness that you'll never recover from? I'm not saying I would ever even think of suicide, but I don't think the government should be able to control when your own life ends.

-washboard

[Grank]

the only life you should terminate is the life of a bad guy... whether the terminally ill are bad guys or not is up to you.

Yooooooooo JOE!