John Helt

Dr. Jack Kevorkian died June 3rd at the age of 83.  Most commonly known as Doctor Death, he assisted terminally ill people in assisted suicide.  At least that is what he told the world.

I assuming that you have your own opinion on the Doctor of death.  His record is apparently 130 and 0, with everyone he assisted died.  An undefeated streak to be proud of right.  It’s a confusing thing to comprehend if he really did help people.  Having his famous saying that “Dying is not a Crime”, he has spent a stint in jail for murder in the second degree.

Not one human being should have the power to decide the fate of someone.  It’s already hard enough if a loved one is on life support that you have to make the decision to take them off and play “God.”  If you think about it more, this decision to go to Jack to assist yourself in ending your life, is your own decision.  The decision not to be here on Earth anymore is your own, not loved ones.  Why does that sound so wrong though?  Does it sound wrong because it is death, or because its God?  Who do we have in the right frame of mind.  The person who is suffering, or the person beside the person who is suffering? Is the pain really that bad?  I don’t have an answer to that.  How bad can it be that you want to take your life, I honestly couldn’t even imagine.

Why is it that death is so frowned upon?  We get tattoos that last the rest of lives, we get married and if really ill, we might lose limbs.  These are things that last the rest of our lives.  Decisions that change your lifestyle.  That is it though.  Rest of our lives.  We might regret the Mike Tyson Tattoo on our face, but we are still alive to be embarrassed by it.  Oh, am I gonna get sued now?  Dammit.  So why is it that we cannot make a decision on our own lives and whether to keep them or not.

Let’s get the extremes out of the way.  Over a million people die each year due to suicide.  To their own choosing, not by the help of a doctor.  Patients who were terminally ill were considered by Kevorkian. Well, that’s what he told us.  According to some reports, as much as sixty percent of them weren’t.  I am not considering that we should have assisted suicide, more or less of a challenge to you the reader.  Think about it, it is one decision you do not have a choice over, or can you.  Jack Kevorkian’s clients were essentially making their own decision.  Why is this so wrong?   Reason being, God has our fate somehow.  We don’t know it, but he does.  When you go into a coma, possibly never to wake up, your loved ones make a decision.  Whether to pay more and more money and ride it out, or let you die.  You aren’t coherent to make your own decision.  So why is Jack a bad man?

Like I said earlier, not one human here should have the power to do that.  This world holds strong faith in God.  While the pain is unbearable, you still are alive.  While you may be to weak to fight, or in to much pain to take the terminally ill disease you have, you can always still pray.   No one has to go to Jack, well they can’t anymore anyway.  Seems like everyone is getting away from the religious aspect of dying.  It is a part of life.  Through all the life support and medication to live, loved ones pray selfishly for that person to live instead of them praying for a peaceful death.  It’s hard, never easy, but it is part of our job here as God’s children.  We need to understand that it is a part of life, not a decision for us to make.  No matter how ill you are, pain your in, it’s not the decision of anyone, not even the ill to decide life or death.  We can get tattoos on our body, do outlandish things, but at the end of the day, we are here because of God.  Essentially, we all wait for our calling, we just don’t know when it is.  We are here to have fun and enjoy ourselves.  Sadly, a part of life is pain, and we have to live with it.

I really do believe that Jack thought he was doing the right thing.  His best interest was for the patient.  I believe that.  He was helping them.  They didn’t want to have to deal with the pain any longer.  They went to a doctor like everyone else would to become healed.  Jack did exactly what they wanted him to do, assist them in ending the pain and suffering.  This isn’t healed though.  This is a decision of no return, but on the other hand so is being terminally ill.  The decision isn’t yours to make.  It’s Gods.  Jack’s job was to get rid of the pain, not terminate the whole thing.

While I do agree that he was doing the right thing as a Doctor and for the ill, he was putting himself in a position he has no business being in.  The respect of a Doctor yes, but as a Power, um no.  Jack isn’t the only one wrong here.  While I sit here and say how Jack assisted in these deaths, it also isn’t you the ill’s decision either.  You do not have the right to choose if you want life or death either.  This is a very difficult conversation to have a right answer to.  You see a Doctor and they will help you.

The death penalty is a hard discussion to have also.  Should someone be put to death for their crimes?  Honestly, no, people should not die because of their crimes because we aren’t God.  The thing is though that we have to have a level that makes people not commit crimes.  It sounds sad, but the penalty needs to be scary.  Do the crime, do the time.

This though, is extreme.  It is a part of life that a doctor has no jurisdiction in.  His expertise is to do the opposite of death.  Make it peaceful while God makes his decision.  So going on what Jack Kevorkian said how about dying isn’t a crime.  Jack is right, it isn’t, because it would be kinda hard to put the guy in prison who does it.  You sir, were just an impostor.