The Importance Of Medicine By Jack Kevorkian

Trying to Play God

A physician’s duty is to their patients to relieve pain and suffering, as well as preserve the dignity of the patient. If a person with a terminal and painful illness is barely mobile, can’t feed themselves, can’t bathe themselves, can’t brush their hair, can’t control their own bodily functions such as using the bathroom, but can request to be assisted in suicide by a physician, then their request should be granted. If the physician refuses due to it being against their religion or believes it is unlawful, then that physician 's duty isn’t being met. If the patient is clearly suffering even with pain medication they are being robbed of their dignity, having to lie in a bed, as others must do everything for them (Bilchik,

They are dictating how medicine should be practiced. You know the court is dominated by religion… ‘Life is sanctity, this and that…’ so what! Instead of intimidating me; I’m intimidating them! There’s no law broken — they know it! They’re looking for a way to get me. They’re out to burn me at the stake figuratively. The problem with medicine today is that it’s under the Dark-Age mentality of mystical religion, which has permeated medicine to the core since Christianity took over. (Kevorkian, 1986)

The idea that it should be illegal to help someone commit suicide is most often described as barbaric and is often ascribed to the Biblical Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” As a result of this, several Christian societies have fought against assisted suicide in recent years. Additionally, "right-to-die" cases are different than "assisted suicide" cases — right-to-die usually refers to the removal of feeding tubes or ventilators keeping unconscious or vegetative patients alive, as opposed to people actively deciding to end their lives (Pickert,

In 2002, the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Also, there are criteria that must be met before euthanasia can be done. These criteria require that the suffering is unbearable, there is no prospect of improvement, there are no acceptable alternatives, a second doctor has been consulted, and the euthanasia must meet state-of-the-art medical standards (Griffith, 2014). Also every case of euthanasia has to be reported to the Public Prosecutor who would assess whether the criteria were met or not before it can be administrated. Many euthanasia requests are made by patients whose lives are described primarily in terms of suffering, and are terminally ill. In the great majority of cases the physical discomfort leading to euthanasia is constant pain, nausea, dependence on others to do total care, dyspnea, extreme fatigue, anxiety, loss of bodily functions, loneliness, and