Alright, first off I’d like to say R.I.P. to Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian who died earlier this month, a truly brilliant man in my personal opinion. His death inspired me to watch the movie detailing his life You Don’t Know Jack, which in turn inspired me to write this entry. So I guess we’ll just go ahead and get to the issue; do you consider him to be a revolutionary or a serial killer? I pride myself on taking an objective approach to everything I think about but with that being said, I can’t find a single valid point coming from those that believe he was some sort of a murderer. This world hasn’t seen a tremendous amount of truly great people but the ones we know about, I feel that the true essence of their greatness gets overlooked….think about it. For instance we admire Einstein for his genius, for coming up with the theory of relativity when in actuality he simply expanded on it. There was already a theory of relativity but therein lies his true greatness to me, because he understood that there had to be more to it than that and he wasn’t afraid to endure ridicule or failure to figure what was missing out so that’s essentially where I draw the line. There have been plenty of individuals who’ve invented great things or who’ve accomplished the seemingly impossible but then there were the great unsung heroes, people who truly changed the world by doing something that inevitably made the world stop and think…and that’s where I place Jack Kevorkian. Aside from his expertise in pathology and vast artistic ability was his determination to revolutionize this country and tip it off of its religiously fanatical axis by doing one thing: helping people end their suffering….. and all he ended up getting in return was a 9 year prison sentence. In my opinion it could all be so easy, just a matter of simple humanity, but this country and this government are so damn puritanical that religious dogma always seems to get in the way and trump all logic and reason. Make no mistake about it though, if you’re religious I’m not gonna sit here and knock you like I know you knock me but all I’m asking are 2 distinct questions: Why can’t you abandon your beliefs long enough to simply be humane or if you can’t do that then why can’t you realize just how hypocritical you are? The main accusations people made were that he was “trying to play God, only God should decide whether we live or die” and “God tests us and puts through things, he wants us to suffer in order to be stronger.” Ok well first off, virtually all medical doctors “play God” and that’s a fact. Secondly, and here’s where the big hypocrisy comes in, using that same logic why is it that when you get sick you immediately go to the doctor to get treated? Why is it when you have a toothache you go to the dentist to get painkillers? You see, to me there’s no difference between going to get help in order to extend your life and getting help to end it and herein lies what I like to refer to as the gray area, the place most people are literally afraid to look at or go to. The place you end up if you’re courageous enough to leave this “black and white” lifestyle we all grow so comfortable with, when you actually become torn between the two sides. I can speak from personal experience, I watched my father suffer and deteriorate before my very own eyes and I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy but he did enlighten me on one last issue, the quality of life. I’ll never forget when he told me, “If you can’t learn to just let me go then you’re fucking selfish because this isn’t living.” The first person Kevorkian helped was a lady a suffereing from Alzheimer’s disease and while she clearly wasn’t going to die anytime soon he understood that it wouldn’t be long before everyone she loved would die, in her mind. Why not let a person end their own life while they can still recognize the people they love most, if you couldn’t remember your spouse, siblings, or even your own damn children then what the fuck would be the point of living? So with that being said, how could a person who helped people put an end to their excruciating pain and agony be called a serial killer? He allowed suffering people to go out with the dignity they all deserve and all people talked about was how bad of a person he was. And mind you he did this for free, unlike normal doctors who get paid damn good to keep you alive and who might decide to diagnose incorrectly just to keep treating your false condition and make you buy irrelevant, non effective drugs to keep making money and also simply because you don’t know any better. Then finally there’s the biggest point of all, and that was the government’s interference during all of this. Plenty of great minds have said it, Kevorkian included; we’re nowhere close to real freedom in this country. When religion and politics combine you’ve got a helluva problem on your hands, because still to this day there are only 3 states in this country that allow assisted suicide. I know that if you read this chances are that you wouldn’t make the connection between that and the whole abortion subject but that’s basically saying the government owns our bodies. They tell us what we can and can’t do with them, they have the power to decide if you can be taken off of life support but firmly oppose you taking matters into your own hands, literally. It’s almost as if they believe they have the right to decide who lives and dies and when it all should happen…..so who’s really “Playing God?”
