It's frightening!
At first I thought there was nothing wrong with Jack Kevorkian helping suffering terminally ill people end their lives. I read about it and remember thinking the terrible pain these people must have been in to end their lives in a broken-down van by lethal injection with Kevorkian for company. But he's not just helping the terminally ill. Kevorkian keeps attending suicides of "people with disabilities and nobody is doing anything about it," says Marsha Katz whose husband, Bob Liston, uses a wheelc hair.
In my weekly articles [for the Detroit News], I always try to focus on the good in Detroit, but Kevorkian's disdain for people with disabilities has gone too far.
Kevorkian made this Hitler-like statement in a court proceeding in Oakland County in August of 1990. "The voluntary self-elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives, taken collectively, can only enhance the preservation of the public health and welfare."
And in his 1991 book, Prescription: Medicide, he writes about creating walk-in clinics, where suicidal people, before being euthanized, can undergo experimental surgery under anesthesia.
Many disabled people are starting to fear that the United States is beginning to embrace the idea of euthanasia for disabled people as a good idea -- not unlike the climate of early Nazi Germany. The simple question is, "Is depression treated differently if you're disabled?" Don't ask Kevorkian and his savvy side kick, lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. Kevorkian considers the suicides of disabled people good for the general community. Most often when a person suddenly begins contemplating suicide, it is taken as an indication that the person is depressed, in need of intervention, and possibly not competent, at least for the moment.
But what if you become disabled, who knows? Learning to adjust or live with a disability can be very difficult, at first. But, things get so much better once you begin to persevere and overcome obstacles. That is what life is about. Facing challenges and succeeding whatever the limitations.
Just last weekend Kevorkian assisted in the suicides of a woman with rheumatoid arthritis and a woman with fibromyalgia, neither of which is considered fatal. Two weeks ago Kevorkian assisted in the death of a student, 21-year-old Roosevelt Dawson of Southfield. Dawson became a quadriplegic after contracting a viral infection.
According to the guidelines Kevorkian proposed in 1990, Dawson would not be considered a candidate because he had just left the hospital hours before his suicide. Also, under Kevorkian's original guidelines, Dawson had not had extensive consultations, or sought alternatives to suicide, or visited a psychiatrist outside the hospital setting.
I wonder what Kevorkian's current guidelines are, if any.
There is a very real possibility that, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of assisted suicide, many disabled people will die who could have or perhaps were already living a good life, a full life, a life that they would have regarded as worth living. I don't want to give you nightmares but Fieger is running for governor of Michigan. Be Aware. Beware.
Heidi Van Arnem is a columnist with the Detroit News. She can be reached via e-mail at www.vanarnem.org.