OpEdNews, PA
Feb 8 2009
Kevorkian: The Right to Die and Other 9th Amendment Freedoms
Loving compassion for terminally ill patients drives 81-year-old
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, but his advocacy is fierce and dramatic. He spoke
before an audience of 2,500 at a South Florida university on February
5th. After comparing U.S. society with each of Laurence Britt’s
Fourteen Points of Fascism, Kevorkian revealed his view of a more
honest American flag:
The audience reacted with audible shock to the swastika, prompting one
man to yell, "They should use the machine on you!" Kevorkian designed
machines that allow the terminally ill to end their lives. Protestors
disrupted his speech twice by marching in and out en masse.
Unperturbed, Kevorkian maintained a sense of humor. During the
question period, someone asked, "What do you think happens after
someone dies?" He answered, "They stink." The audience laughed and
applauded. Several times, Kevorkian earned applause as people showed
their support of an individual’s right to determine the manner and
timing of his or her death.
The freedom to die has gained much media attention lately. In
December, a Montana court upheld iatric euthanasia (physician assisted
suicide). In November, the State of Washington voted for the right to
die, joining Oregon. In March of last year, Luxembourg legalized it.
Also in 2008, a highly publicized case in Italy ended after ten years
when the courts finally allowed a man to remove the feeding tubes of
his daughter who had been in a coma for 17 years. A documentary on
the right to die aired in Britain in December (see video below for
footage and an interview of the director).
Kevorkian admits to euthanizing 130 patients. Though unsuccessfully
prosecuted for several of them, the one that earned him an eight-year
prison sentence was his televised broadcast of Thomas Youk’s death in
1998. The 52-year-old had ALS, a progressive, usually fatal,
neurodegenerative disease. Physicist Stephen Hawking suffers from
ALS, and baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig died of it in 1941. Youk
was physically unable to self-administer the lethal dose, but provided
fully-informed consent to Kevorkian to end his life. The Michigan
justice system violated his 9th amendment rights when prosecuting
Kevorkian for what many deem to be the highly ethical and
compassionate act of a trained physician. Just as we euthanize our
terminally ill pets, Kevorkian argues that humans have the natural
right to demand the same.
In defending against that first degree murder charge, Kevorkian had
hoped the US Supreme Court would hear his 9th Amendment defense.
SCOTUS declined, a cowardly move that Kevorkian called corrupt and
unethical. In Amendment IX: Our Cornucopia of Rights (Penumbra Press,
Bloomfield Hills, MI, 2005), which he wrote while in prison, Kevorkian
stated:
"Without a doubt the Court’s insouciance and trepidation are welcomed
and encouraged by extremely powerful lobbies representing antagonistic
and self-serving financial, medical, pharmaceutical, governmental, and
religious organizations. Despite the enormous pressure they and their
economic and political clout can exert, a really dedicated, stalwart,
and ethical Court would be doing its noble duty as the ultimate
guardian of our innate natural rights by being perpetually and
single-mindedly focused on the people’s welfare…."
After his release from prison in June 2007, Dr. Kevorkian began a
speaking tour that included Harvard Law School last October, where
famed Alan Dershowitz introduced him with high acclaim. Praises
aside, murderous zealots who seek to impose their religious beliefs on
others have apparently targeted Kevorkian. Police and security formed
a large presence inside and outside the Nova Southeastern University
arena. Attendees endured a search of their bodies and purses and
relinquished all drinks before entering the arena. When confiscating
my coffee, one officer explained, "You might have acid in that drink.
We don’t know."
Unusual for NSU’s Distinguished Speaker Series, and contrary to the
printed program, no one introduced Dr. Kevorkian. Poor acoustics
suppressed his message for the upper tier, half of whom left early
when part of the audio system failed. Adding to further difficulties
for the audience, at the end, handicapped seniors were required to
climb to the second floor to exit the arena, instead of leaving
through the doors on the first floor that were blocked "for security
reasons."
Kevorkian had a little trouble articulating his thoughts during the
speech, which never directly mentioned iatric euthanasia. His acumen
distinctly showed during open questions, though, when he finally
connected for the audience the three admitted passions in his speech
to the freedom to die:
The protection of human rights against government tyranny;
The reformation of our penal system to include the more humane
sanctuary system; and
A complete and radical change to public education.
For Kevorkian, the damage to personal liberty by a tyrannical
government includes the suppression of our inalienable right to die,
but it doesn’t stop there. A justice system based purely on
punishment warps prisoners and destroys families. An education system
that fails to teach its citizens about personal liberties and the
nature of tyranny ensures the demise of a free society. To regain the
right to die, or any natural right, all three institutions `
government, justice, and education ` must be reformed.
Given that much of the audience was shocked by easy comparisons
between Nazi Germany and the modern United States, advocating for
education reform is indeed wise. Kevorkian hammered at the Patriot
Act and Homeland Security Act, which he compared to Hitler’s 1933
Enabling Act.
He scolded the audience for allowing their inalienable rights to be
forfeited in exchange for security. "You are letting the government
spy on you because you aren’t in the streets protesting about it."
Benjamin Franklin once observed, "Those who sacrifice liberty for
security deserve neither." Yet, these ideas are mere abstraction to
today’s youth, where even elite colleges fail to properly educate
their students in civics. Instead of the Pledge of Allegiance,
Kevorkian would prefer students recite the Bill of Rights.
The Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the U.S. states
of Oregon, Washington and Montana specifically permit iatric
euthanasia. Britain is again debating the issue after it aired
Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky’s The Suicide Tourist (under the
rename, The Right to Die) in December. Prime Minister Gordon Brown
voiced his opposition to legislation allowing it, but affirmed his
support of personal choice. This video interview of Zaritsky opens
with footage from The Suicide Tourist:
an-The-Right-to-Di-by-Rady-Ananda-090208-69.html