Should Dr. Jack Kevorkian have gone to prison?

The point here I'm afraid is not whether Jack Kevorkian was morally or ethically right or wrong... or whether or not he was doing these folks a kindness... or whether or not he violated the ppocratic Oath (first do no harm)... the point is that every society needs laws in order to function... If everyone did what they felt was "right," without regard for the law, chaos would reign in no time. And not subjecting him to some sort of punishment would have set dangerous legal and medical precedents that would have had open season on anyone who wanted to take advantage of someone disabled or terminal... under the guise of putting them out of their pain and suffering. When I was 28 ... I was dating a guy pretty seriously.

One night he and his friend were on their way home in a rain storm. S buddy skidded through a stop sign from the road conditions and he went through the windshield. He lived, but was a quadraplegic -- completely paralyzed from the neck down.

I remember tears streaming down his face in his Neuro ICU hospital bed that he couldn't wipe away... as he railed against the paramedics for resuscitating him... and begged me to help him end his life. Looking at him lying there with the "halo" and all the tubes and wires attached... all I could do was look into his eyes, hold his hand and cry with him. And then cry harder when it occurred to me that he couldn't even feel me holding his hands.

I can't imagine that kind of loneliness or hopelessness. But I still couldn't imagine helping him end his life. I told him I would help him with anything but that.

I have not lived with extreme pain for a long period of time. Not the kind that you know is never going to get better. So I can't speak from that kind of subjective vantage point.

But in my heart I truly believe that every curve ball life tosses our way is thrown for a reason. We are supposed to learn from every pain -- physical and emotional -- and every happiness. And to everything there is a season.

We are given a very short time here and I think it is up to us to take the gifts we have been given... and those curve balls... and make the most of it. After all... when death comes... it is not reversible. Granted... ethics and law need to catch up to technology... but until they do ... Jack Kevorkian broke the law and deserved to be punished.PS.

Having gone through the grief of 2 close friends committing suicide... I do agree that it is the ultimate selfish act. Generally, people who commit suicide are typically so embroiled in their own hopelessness and despair that they can't see beyond that to how devastated their loved ones would be without them. But in that grief and despair, they also truly believe that their loved ones would be better off without them.So is it weakness or softness?

I don't think so. I think it is despair and hopelessness that penetrates so deeply that one can't imagine unless they have been through it. The whole time I was growing up... my mom used to say "You can't judge anyone unless you have walked a mile in their shoes.

" So unless you have been down their road to know how they got to the place they are... you just don't have the right to open your mouth and ridicule or judge them for their actions. There are very few things in life I feel strongly about enough to stand up for them. I am very much a proponent of picking my battles.

Judging someone else or their actions, or making a determination about their character or lack thereof, however, is simply not "ok.

The point here I'm afraid is not whether Jack Kevorkian was morally or ethically right or wrong... or whether or not he was doing these folks a kindness... or whether or not he violated the ppocratic Oath (first do no harm)... the point is that every society needs laws in order to function... If everyone did what they felt was "right," without regard for the law, chaos would reign in no time. And not subjecting him to some sort of punishment would have set dangerous legal and medical precedents that would have had open season on anyone who wanted to take advantage of someone disabled or terminal... under the guise of putting them out of their pain and suffering. When I was 28 ... I was dating a guy pretty seriously.

One night he and his friend were on their way home in a rain storm. S buddy skidded through a stop sign from the road conditions and he went through the windshield. He lived, but was a quadraplegic -- completely paralyzed from the neck down.

I remember tears streaming down his face in his Neuro ICU hospital bed that he couldn't wipe away... as he railed against the paramedics for resuscitating him... and begged me to help him end his life. Looking at him lying there with the "halo" and all the tubes and wires attached... all I could do was look into his eyes, hold his hand and cry with him. And then cry harder when it occurred to me that he couldn't even feel me holding his hands.

I can't imagine that kind of loneliness or hopelessness. But I still couldn't imagine helping him end his life. I told him I would help him with anything but that.

I have not lived with extreme pain for a long period of time. Not the kind that you know is never going to get better. So I can't speak from that kind of subjective vantage point.

But in my heart I truly believe that every curve ball life tosses our way is thrown for a reason. We are supposed to learn from every pain -- physical and emotional -- and every happiness. And to everything there is a season.

We are given a very short time here and I think it is up to us to take the gifts we have been given... and those curve balls... and make the most of it. After all... when death comes... it is not reversible. Granted... ethics and law need to catch up to technology... but until they do ... Jack Kevorkian broke the law and deserved to be punished.PS.

Having gone through the grief of 2 close friends committing suicide... I do agree that it is the ultimate selfish act. Generally, people who commit suicide are typically so embroiled in their own hopelessness and despair that they can't see beyond that to how devastated their loved ones would be without them. But in that grief and despair, they also truly believe that their loved ones would be better off without them.So is it weakness or softness?

I don't think so. I think it is despair and hopelessness that penetrates so deeply that one can't imagine unless they have been through it. The whole time I was growing up... my mom used to say "You can't judge anyone unless you have walked a mile in their shoes.

" So unless you have been down their road to know how they got to the place they are... you just don't have the right to open your mouth and ridicule or judge them for their actions. There are very few things in life I feel strongly about enough to stand up for them. I am very much a proponent of picking my battles.

Judging someone else or their actions, or making a determination about their character or lack thereof, however, is simply not "ok".

I do not believe he should have been put in jail for doing what he did to those patients. I am not a casual observer of this news story; I was a first hand witness to many people in the last stages of cancer. This gets a bit graphic as its told by my own personal experience as a certified nurse’s aide.

When someone is unable to roll himself or herself over in bed they get bed sores which are really bad. They need to be rolled over every two hours to prevent these bedsores. In addition, these people are too weak to get up and use the bathroom as we do.

They nust be rolled over as needed so aides can change the depends so the feces or urine does not damage their skin or cause an infection if they have a bedsore. For the last week or so of life for many of the cancer patients I helped take care of the urine was not the color as one would expect, it was red. Blood poured out of them, and it was frightening to watch.

They are at the mercy of the disease called cancer and they cry out each time they are rolled. Yet we must do it by law and human compassion. Many of these people cried out for death to come take them, and it was awful to watch.

I am sure this stuff is what lead Dr. K to help these patients. Yes I said help, because he did help them out of pain, a pain so bad that the strongest pain meds available did little to touch. I did not support this man until I seen firsthand these cancer patients and now I fully support him.

Death is not a privilege, It's a right. The law should have no say in weather or not I want to live. If I cant raise my own hand to take my own life, you should not be punished for helping me.

Its ignorant to believe this is just another way to say murder. It's even more ignorant to lock away an educated man because he has different ideas. We have terms for a reason, an abortion, man-slaughter, attempted murder, suicide, and assisted suicides are different ways to die, not different forms of murder.

Although all of these end in death, they are not all crimes. All life is not precious, this type of thinking is something we need to get over before our world is overpopulated with sick dying people attached to iron lungs. Take notes from the Mayans beliefs on death, why live on past your best days?

If your never gonna recover, what is the point? For that matter read up on Darwin. Survival of the fittest applies to this situation.

Say what you will about the doctor. Say he is sadistic, weird, morbid, or even a killer, but you have to realize your saying this because you don't understand him or his ideas. He is a smart, and well read man, If he wasn't he would not have became a practicing doctor.

Also he is an educated man who was wrongfully serving time in an overcrowded prison system, we need this space for rapists and child molesters. I cannot begin to explain how his imprisonment is a greater crime than euthanasia. For the record, if I'm sick and dying in pain.

Please just kill me. Oh wait, you'll go to prison, even if I beg you to do so until my last breath.

Dr. Kevorkian was found guilty by a jury of his peers in a fair trial, and has had the same right to appeal as any other convicted criminal. Unless you are accusing the prosecution of jury tampering or some other crime, or the Judge of failing to do his job, then I don't see how you could say it wasn't justified. What's wrong with assisted suicide is that it's against the law, determined to be so by the people of the state of Michigan, where I happen to live and where Dr. Death was imprisoned.By the way, he was not imprisoned for assisted suicide, he was imprisoned for second degree murder.

He was duly convicted of 2nd degree murder, and thumbed his nose at the legal system, saying ..."“You think I’m going to obey the law? You’re crazy,� He said in 1998 shortly before he was accused — and then convicted — of murder after injecting lethal drugs into Thomas Youk, 52...".

msnbc.msn.com/id/18974940/ It is the people of the State of Michigan that have every right to determine what is and is not considered murder in our State. It's not up to you, or Dr. Kervorkian, or any other serial killer who gets pleasure from killing people. If you want to change the law, work within the system to get it changed, don't just go around killing people.Dr. Kervorkian lost his medical license in 1991 because of his illegal practices.

Legality aside, he obviously blew the "first, do no harm" vow right off the map. He has had a morbid fascination with death his entire life, and his advertisement for "Death Counseling" is what got him caught by the Medical board. Before that, he had petitioned to do "death experiments" on death row inmates.In other words, he was actively looking for people to kill, people to try out his latest "Thanatron" (Death machine).

The man is just a deranged serial killer, attending court in 18th century costumes, burning court orders. It's a shame they let him out early, it's a shame they let him out at all.

Interesting question! My answer is no. A doctor is there to help people, help them feel better, fix what's broken, and so on.

Kevorkian was only doing his job, yes what he created gave those an option to finish their lives BUT the option, as far as I know, was only given to those who were on their last limb as is, not some college boy who had a sprained ankle, but someone who was close to dying, if not dying already. I don't feel it was done out of evil as some may say. He was simply a doctor trying to help his patients find comfort, and peace.

You asked what's wrong with assisted suicide? Well my main thing I could see as being a problem, aside from the idea that people are so used to horror that comes with the word suicide, but I think a big thing would be, would this 'procedure' be abused, would it be used when it wasn't necessary. I feel if something like this were brought back, a very VERY fine line would need to be drawn, and it would need to be monitored like crazy, to make sure all goes as planned, and there was no 'sneaking around'.

Hope that answers you questions!

I believe that his imprisonment was fair. By helping someone commit suicide you are guilty of murder. Alot of people say that we are in a free country, well that has nothing to do with it.

If living in a free country was taken literally then we wouldn't have much of a country. I am sure alot of people would argue that since we live in a free country they should be able to have sex with little girls and boys. Freedom comes with a moral obligation.

Other murderers are sent to prison, why should this murderer be treated any different? The problem with assisted suicide is it is still murder. In 2001 Armin Meiwes put an ad online asking for a young well built man who wants to be eaten.

A man responded to this ad knowing that he was offering himself up to die and be eaten. The man was killed. Meiwes was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

This happened in Germany. This is just another example with assisted suicide. Another example of it not being okay to murder another person with or without their okay.

It is wrong to end the life of anyone. It is wrong to kill yourself. And are we certain that the people he killed were even dying of whatever they had?

Under the current justice system, as he was found guilty the answer is "yes. " That does not mean that laws can not be changed. The doctor was not in the business of changing laws, he was helping people front line and bringing attention to a controversial situation.

I completely disagree with the prison term. I feel that if someone is in such dire pain and asking for assistance in dying due to it, it should be allowed. He was also a Dr. so I have much more confiendent in the helping of someones death.So there fore I do not agree with the prison term.

I do not believe that he should have gone to prison. This country that we live in is suppose to be free and to me I feel as we are being controled. I am not saying that anyone that does not feel good or has a bad day should be able to go and get help from a dr to kill themselves.

If there is someone that is ill and there is no way that they can survior then where is the harm in it? If we will put an animal to sleep when they are sick and know that they are in pain and no way out why can't we give mankind the same respect?

The problem as I see it is that there are two issues being mixed together. The first and most important issue is the flagrant breaking of a law to try and force an issue into debate and into the limelight. This country and many nations have laws; these laws, while they may not be right all of the time, have been codified and discussed over hundreds of years, and if someone does not agree with them they have every right to discuss, debate and go to their congressmen or senators to try and get a law amended.

Once we start challenging laws by simply breaking them then we are attacking the whole foundation of our country and democracy. For example, I’m British and therefore do not believe in the death penalty – however, I would never think of breaking all those on death row out of jail just because I want to change the law – there has to debate on the issues involved, and while I may believe one way, if the majority of people believe another way, then in a democratic nation, the view of the majority is what is important. We’ve seen people take the law into their own hands in many different situations, the biggest being with the abortion issue – in extreme cases, doctor’s have been murdered because they perform abortions – this is not the way for a civilized society to act.

While I sympathize with the need for assisted suicide, feeling that if there is absolutely no chance of a cure, and the patient is suffering, then the patient has every right, in a free society, to choose the time of their death – no law should force someone to suffer when there is no other solution for them. However, to change this law, there must be debate, both in the public and in congress – there are many issues that must be thought through before any law can be changed: -Is there any chance of a cure in the near future? -Is the patient in sound mind?

-Can the suffering be alleviated and quality of life improved? It’s not an easy debate, but it is important that we have this debate, in an open and constructive way, before any law is changed. My mother passed away because of cancer ten years ago, and the last month of her life was extremely painful and she was only lucid part of the time – she had no quality of life, and despite heavy medication I really wished there had been something I could have done to improve her life for those last moments.

Had there been the option for assisted suicide, I would have discussed this with my mother before her cancer became untreatable and made sure she included her wishes in her living will – as it was, I watched my mother suffer and regretted that the laws were different. Although I would have loved to ‘assist’ my mother at this point, I believe in abiding by laws, but more so, I did not know my mother’s wishes and therefore would not have made the choice for her. So to answer the questions directly – yes, Dr. Jack Kevorkian should have gone to prison – no one is above the law, no matter how honorable his intentions were.

Yes, Dr. Jack Kevorkian should have gone to prison. The reason is suicide is not a chosen behavior, it happens when pain exceeds resources when dealing with feelings. The feeling of being suicidual does not necessarily mean you want to die, it means that it is an option.

What Dr Kevorkian did was carefully planned the execution of an weak individual.

Death is neither a privilege or a right - death is inevitable. We all have a time to live and a time to die. It is the nature of life.

The argument should not be whether or not assisted suicide is right. You asked the question should the Dr. go to jail. The simple answer is YES.

He broke the existing law. If you wish to change the law, work in the direction of change. But do not ignore the law and not expect consequences.

Now continue your debate on assisted suicide.............. God bless, J.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.