Not that there was a single legitimate reason, morally or sensibly, for this man to be imprisoned in the first place, it is still good to see him (rightfully) unapologetic and still fighting for the things he believes in - and now a free man.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6708041.stm
Jack Kevorkian - once America's most ardent advocate of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients - has ended an eight-year prison sentence apparently determined to wade right back into the right-to-die debate.
Jack Kevorkian in a 1991 photograph
Kevorkian says his campaign will continue but within the laws
The 79-year-old retired pathologist's release is likely to push the assisted suicide issue back to prominence. According to reports, Kevorkian's lawyer says his client has been offered lucrative public speaking contracts.
Throughout the 1990s, Kevorkian waged a defiant campaign to help people end their lives.
His "suicide machine" - an instrument that allowed patients to inject themselves intravenously with a lethal dose of potassium chloride - became notorious.
The man who came to be known as "Dr Death" was linked to about 130 deaths, and was charged, tried and cleared in three assisted-suicide cases.
He was finally convicted of murder in 1999 after injecting a lethal dose himself for the first time, into a patient suffering from a wasting disease.
Is there anyone with a brain that actually thinks euthanasia should still be illegal that isn't just a slippery slope hysterical facehead? Especially given the results we see in places like Holland - and Oregon(!), where (afaik) at least voluntary euthanasia is legal (and I would therefore assume non-voluntary euthanasia also?)
Euthanasia isn't much of a moral debate for me, since I happen to believe that a self conscious person's autonomy and choice is more important (especially in this context) than the rabid frothings of the anti-euthanasia crowd (usually filled with religious idiots and such like). I support the Holland model 100%.
So yeah, a good day, I'm having a drink on Kevorkian tonight.
