Jack Kevorkian and the Right to Die | Retro Report | The New York Times
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ค. 2015
- Jack Kevorkian’s unorthodox methods drew attention to assisted suicide. Decades later, Americans still struggle with whether doctors should be allowed to help suffering patients end their lives.
Produced by: Retro Report
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Jack Kevorkian and the Right to Die | Retro Report | The New York Times
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I can't believe that if a animal is suffering we put it down because it's inhumane to allow them to suffer,but when it comes to humans we say no you can die a long painful death,it's not the legal systems place to tell me when or how I'll die
Big pharma likely had the legal system in their pockets on this one. People being able to choose to die ment less people buying their expensive medication. They do not make money from people actually getting better and they also do not make money from people dying so they want to keep people simply stable for maximum profit.
Animals dont pay taxes or buy medication. But people do. Screw theyre rights if we can squeeze more money out of them
GREAT POINT!
An animal has no input on the situation. Its death is your (whoever's) choice, and you probably won't regret it. A person on the other hand might decide to cling to life at the last second, and since it was their choice they would regret it. But it's too late then. They killed themselves, and wanted to live. This is statistically bound to happen.
Your comparing two things that are very different niba
We seem to act as though death is a rare thing that happens to other people. How is it more ethical to tell a patient to die of dehydration than to help them die humanely and with dignity?
"How is it more ethical to tell a patient to die of dehydration than to help them die humanely and with dignity?"
Honestly, for many people that answer is "because god." Active participation in death equals murder in their mind, while passive support equals a natural end and not murder. Even if the latter is far, far more undignified, painful, prolonged, and demeaning for the patient.
NekoMouser Well than thats just sick.
allidock11 The problem is that many people don't want to be konfrontet with the fact, that no one will survive life. In about 100 years everyone out there living now is gonna die.
I would rather die of dehydration than suicide
TheLeadZombie thats your choice. Though choosing to no longer eat is still suicide
“We’re not dead yet, we want to live” Ok? If you want to live, the issue doesnt effect you. Just because you want to live, you take away someone else’s right to die? People should have the right to choose to end their own lives, and doctors should have the right to choose whether or not they would like to carry out the precedure.
I can’t believe from all the ethical dilemmas made in the video you chose to refute and then expound on a crowds chant. You sir are not just a clown, you are the entire circus🎪
@@pauljones8655 cause saying that really makes you seem cool and like your point matters, right?
merchandise 7X why? Even if it is murder, why should you be able to make the decision for me. No one chooses to be born
"People should have the right to choose to end their own lives," so if someone is going through a rough patch in his life, he should have the right to commit suicide?
@@thatoneguy58609Yes
My great aunt killed herself because she had cancer while in her 90s. She had survived the holocaust, being an immigrant to America, benign poor, getting to a stable household, and so much she couldn’t bare the idea of chemotherapeutic therapy. She had lived she didn’t need to suffer to live longer. I am sad about it but she had every right to do it.
Sarah Kessler• Do you know if it was a peaceful one, or did she shoot herself or something?
+J Gunn
Grow up!
Imma give her my respect my man
I'm so sorry about your aunt. :(
Sarah Kessler r/thathappend
Prolonging suffering is just a way for hospitals to increase profits.
you mean increase costs and waste money on a dying hopeless case
BLU Robot Soldier increasing the hospitals profits by taking money from the patients and their families
The Government isn't for the people, but rather for big businesses and profits. Same with big Pharma.
dead people don't make the state money. those who prolong suffering are the evil ones.
@Monica ky mama anytime you mention Jesus or the Lord your statement loses all credibility.
I believe people have the right to die when they feel that they're illness has taken over their life.
Sky Chase what if you have cancer and it's terminal and you don't want to go through chemo and put yourself in that much pain
Downeaster Productions Then you should have the right to end it. Honestly if you don't want to go through it, you should be able to.
Downeaster Productions
You can do it.
Well Atleast in the Netherlands
My grandma did that.
What about mental illness?
Sky Chase people should have the right to die whenever they feel like it
Kevorkian was a hero. Thanks to him at least some states stepped out of the dark ages and now allow assisted suicide.
He looks like a psycho - the way he smiled when he was taken into custody... But he did a good thing for a lot of people, most doctors and people, in general, wouldn't have the strength to do what he did. I know I wouldn't.
He did misstep by trying to up the ante when people had already started to reconsider their position. Probably re-entrenched a WHOLE lot who went from "maybe people should be allowed to choose to die" to "see, doctor's are going to actively encourage it and do it themselves and they could just say the patient asked for it." He was on the right path and was a hero, but the "showmanship" of his later steps definitely slowed down the very public acceptance than his previous steps made people consider.
+zh11147 Can you cite a single patient who "didn't understand the magnitude of the decision they were making" that he helped to commit suicide? Far as I know, not a single patient's family ever sued him and many spoke openly in his defense.
So you are saying you have no idea on whether there is actually any additional "magnitude" to their decision at all.
Good man.
i openly cried at the young man who said he wanted to die. its our choice our life to not suffer with
CHICKEN Permission Definitly.
I agree.
Absolutely
he had Parkinson's or MS. not sure what....but both are HORRIFIC ways to die
+Coconut ScienceGirl92 ALS the worst one.
Touchy ethical issue. I really think that if you're not in these peoples shoes its hard to understand their suffering
Cheyronda Green That's a great point. I'd just argue that people who have to try and understand, get to do it from the comfort of their healthy self. Even if they were to really focus and try to put themselves in someone else's shoes, they'd always be able to quickly leave that place of suffering by going back to their reality. This is not possible for those who don't have that choice. Remember, PEOPLE are making the choice to or not to, for themselves. Who is anyone else to block that? That just forces people to do really drastic, undignified things in order to pass on. Or suffer far greater than they ever wanted. THAT is cruelty defined.
I meant to say "I'd just add", since I don't think there's anything I'd argue about your post.
I can understand. I watched my mother suffer terribly from pulmonary fibrosis before I watched her last breath
You keep saying this. What do you actually mean by it? I think you're NOT being in--by your own words--"immense physical and emotional pain," means you have no idea the magnitude of the decision they are making. What is this mysterious magnitude a person dying a slow and painful death is missing out on?
zh11147 Your statement of "magnitude" implies that they are choosing death when life is an option. The people using euthanasia have the choice to die on their own terms, quickly and painlessly while they still have their faculties, or a slow and painful death in which they and their families watch them painfully waste away to nothing, left with memories of a skeletal loved one. I fully support assisted suicide because I would always want the option to end my own suffering with dignity.
My grandmother witnessed her father die an agonizing death to pancreatic cancer over the course of several years. This was around 50 years ago or so. According to her, multiple times he asked to die, and multiple times she was appalled by his psychological treatment by the hospital, but nothing was done and he died in excruciating pain.
She decided to become a bioethicist because of how horrified she was by this (alongside raising two kids and being a high-school dropout) and is now one of the most respected in our country.
The right to die should be a human right.
Shynon it is but it's not respected by the government.
I'm sorry about your grandmother and her father.
Train Magic it’s not murder stfu 😂😭 “ Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, “
Train Magic ...who?
Depends. I agree with it 100% if it involves horrible diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's Ebola etc. But not for mental illnesses.
Unbelievable.... We afford animals the right to stop suffering but not people.
Heather Feather 🙏🏽 thank you for commenting exactly what my first thought was
Heather Feather A human life is different than a animals
Dylan and should thus be dragged on through weeks or months of insufferable pain to a death that was inevitable anyway
@@stukut and how so? From the evolutionary standpoint, all life have originated from an ancient common ancestor - many of the cells that makes up the human being is also shared by animals.
Mitochondria, ribosomes, cell membranes, et cetera. this is not by "chance". Life had evolved in such a way that allowed life to thrive and flourish.
The brain structure of the human brain also shares similarities with other animals - albeit the human brain being more developed with additional faculties to improve survival rate.
Humans treat their pets much like a family member - some more than others. In fact, it can be said that humans who did have such a connection treat their pets no less than a human in such a regard.
If you look at the biology and evolutionary history of life, it is very clear how life finds a way to adapt to the changing environment and how the world changing impacts such development.
Humans have the advantage of having many abilities that work together extremely well - adaptability to their environment (in fact, skin color is the best way to see this adaptability, as Vitamin D levels in the body over the span of our species' evolutionary history), the ability to be fully bipedal, the brain's development, and many other things.
Sources about Vitamin D and its relation to skin color:
www.nasw.org/article/vitamin-d-levels-determined-how-human-skin-color-evolved
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5372923/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067096/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356951/
I said that when my grandma was in a nursing home with a brain tumor slowly taking awake who She was and making her suffer. When one of my cats had stomach cancer, I was able to end her suffering. Grandma couldn't u too her body broke.
Kevorkian was a hero. Forward-thinking and more compassionate than any religious person knows how to be, so obviously they pounced on him.
zh11147 So... starving yourself for 10 days is somehow less painful? The man who asked to be euthanized by Kevorkian explicitly asked for him to do so. Their family did and still doesn't see it as murder. Plus, no child is asking to be sexually assaulted or abused. Please find a better argument.
Moreover, you participate in the euthanization of cows for a living. Don't go crying ethics when it gets applied to other mammals.
2126Eliza no one’s religion should be applied to any other human being in life, that’s oppression and that alone is not ethical. No one has the right to tell another human being how or even if they should die or place limitations on another life, because of their own sense of “Ethic’s”. We really need to redefine that word, period. America needs a reality check in the worst way.
I’m a Christian and I can see this side of the argument. You don’t want to be judged for your choices, so don’t judge mine.
Ok my edgy boi
Evanston Conner you go do that bud, tell me how it works out
Omg I felt so embarrassed for that guy saying “hit the road jack”
We have to feel embarrassed for them, because those types of people will not feel it themselves.
Omg saaaameeeeeee
Right... retro cringe! Lol
Lol
Yeeeeaaahh, that hasn't aged well. But he is just doing what politicians do: pandering to popular public opinion. Kevorkian scared people at first. People really thought he was a criminal.
We end our pets suffering with euthanasia when they're either in pain or deathly sick, calling it "humanely putting an end to their suffering". Yet we find it "Inhumane" to put patients to sleep who won't recover, and doesn't want to live with their illness anymore. Why is it humane to do to pets, yet inhumane to people?
Peolpe are human beings. Human beings, who are grown ups, not pets don't want to have to dwell on laws, courts, judges, attorneys, and the like when they are terminally ill. Why put more pressure and stress on them when all they want to do is mind their own business at that terminal time! Let them rest in peace when their time comes. Lancedriskell328@yahoo.com
@@lancedriskell9397 so you would rather them die a slow, painful death just because they're people and not cats or dogs?
Disgusting, its not your place to force someone to live their final moments suffering and crying in agony because their illness like cancer is eating them alive
As a cancer survivor myself and having lost my mom to cancer 4 years ago my mom wanted to live and she fought for it hard but in her final moments she had a death rattle when she was breathing it's enough to make your skin crawl in those final moments it would have been more humane to give her medicine that would quicken the process which is what happened the hospice nurse gave her morphine which has side effects one of which is it can stop your heart in heavy doses imo she was in unbearable pain and my mom was already gone
Because "palliative care" draws some fat checks. People are worth more suffering than dead.
@@erica4816 God I hope that’s not the reason. With how the pharmaceutical companies operate it wouldn’t surprise me
If americans allow death penalty why don't they allow that!!!!
Because the death penalty is about selfishly easing their own anger through revenge, while assisted suicide is about selflessly sucking up your own fear of death to help someone else who is suffering, and society fosters an unspoken safe haven for that type of unconscious and unaccountable selfishness.
Mario Mirdita society thinks consent is the end all and be all.
it's because Christianity unlike Judaism Islam don't have any rules like eating pork, alcohol, shellfish and rabbits.
Christianity allows so many things compared to Judaism and Islam.
Because they don't view prisoners as people.
Mario Mirdita oh wow. That’s a really good point. I never thought of that.
ethan dollhouse good one yeah geez so true
This is insane. Get to work, change the legislation, and stop prolonging suffering!
Rose Redd Yes inmates should be able to request the right to die if they want to
John Harbinger - No, they don't deserve that compassion, they have to pay for their crimes by rooting in a cell...
I have no right to pass judgement on your pain. Who am I to say “you should wait it out”. What kind of right do I have to force you to stay alive when you are in that much pain.
TurtleKing777 yes
I wish others had your clear way of thinking, trying to explain this to my family is a exercise in frustration :/
Absolutely no one has the right to speak against assisted suicides until they have experienced suffering first hand themselves, by witness of a loved one or their own self experience.
Again, you KEEP claiming there are all these "ramifications" and that it is literally impossible to rationally reject them because rejecting them means you aren't mentally fit enough to understand them or make the decision but you NEVER define what these ramifications are. Can you enlighten us? And enlighten us on why there is no rational way to say "I fully understand that and I don't care about it?"
Though I suspect your answer is just going to be "blah blah eternal soul blah blah" and because your particular and personal religious belief is too limiting to allow for it and therefore your particular and person belief should be legally encompassing of everyone else because you know what's inherently right and good and have all the answers and clearly they do not--but if you have any actual rational answers, please share because you KEEP bringing it up without expanding on it.
NekoMouser I agree with your frustration, this person is commenting everywhere with this vague BS. I also agree that they are probably referring to the bible saying god doesn't like suicide and the person would be damning their soul. I guess the commenter missed the part in the bible where god gave man free will, or the part of the constitution that gave US citizens freedom from religion. I'm not religious and I'd like the option to choose not to die in a slow, painful way.
Train Magic what a strong word isn’t it
In Tennessee a coworker of mine with fatal cancer was prescribed a lethal dose of morphine. He was told if the pain got too bad this was the fix. He had enough time to visit everyone including me to get closure and say goodbye. A few weeks later his pain ended with his choice after loosing 67% of his body weight. He was very happy all the way to his dying day and it gave me great relief that he was able to end his life on his terms and not suffer more than he needed to. He was a great man who died in a great way. A peaceful end to a wonderful life. If anyone thinks he should have suffered before his death, I consider you not human. It was a beautiful death in the way he left this world still smiling and spreading his message and love to those around him. No one has the right do deny someone from happiness in death. NO one.
All doctors take an oath to Do No Harm, but how do you define harm when someone lives their life in constant pain
That oath isn't taken anymore. Otherwise, surgery and some other treatments are forbidden, since you have to cut patient open first, doing harm.
@@ceu160193 U stupid. Fact.
@@ceu160193 That's NOT what that means.
@@midgetwthahacksaw It is, unfortunately. Oath to Do No Harm was created in times, when doctors were fairly limited in ways they could treat sickness.
It's more of a tradition, than actual oath, like ritual that makes you a doctor.
@@whhe11 nah you’re the one that’s stupid. Maybe go and actually READ the Hippocratic oath. The original oath asks that doctors don’t cut open their patients
we had to do something like this with my dad. If he ever recovered he would have to be in a nursing home for the rest of his life. So we let him go in a painless way.
Lol we have the same profile picture.
whomst'dve I’m so sorry for your loss. I can only imagine how difficult it has been.
sorry bro✊️
Train Magic what’s it like not being educated enough to understand the man was suffering and had no way out ? LMFAOOO you have no sympathy for her or her family gtfo
Love your username. The reality is that terribly ill people can and do find other ways to end their pain- grisly, terrifying ways which cause them and their loved ones more unnecessary misery.
Thank you for your mercy Dr. Jack K.
zh11147 Assisted suicide is more specific than mercy killing. In the latter, the one being killed did not give consent, while in the first, the one dying is ultimately the orchestrator of their death.
@@MelodyLiuJade How about when people block a person's deaths I see it as a form of torture/humiliation?
I am so glad this man existed. Without him my father wouldn't have had the right to die.
what happened?
He had ALS
Jarrod3588 oh jeez that’s scary that means you’ll get it
PreZetsche not necessarily
As someone who suffers from chronic severe/intractable pain, it was my honor to run into Dr. Kevorkian on the street of downtown Royal Oak, Michigan. To thank, and shake the hand of such a compassionate man who fought so hard for people who are truly suffering.
I'm so thankful I had that chance. It was an HONOR.
RIP -- Mr. Jack Kevorkian
My friend's father was dying slowly and horribly of COPD. The state she lives in doesn't allow assisted suicide, so he shot himself in the head after months of decline and misery. This needs to be legal in every state.
Train Magic you are brainless
@Train Magic pro torture
Sad that he couldn't have an open casket but I'm glad he went quick
shooting yourself in the head is less painful than lethal injcetion. the ting is that lethal injection normalizes suicide and doesnt make it a big deal, trying to 'unaware' the patient. death is never a solution for pain. but shooting yourself in the head and realizing all the graphic details tht come with it , makin someone realiz what suicide actually is
I’ll be dammed if I let the government tell me how I die...that’s my choice. And yes maybe he made a spectacle sometimes but he made sure his story got to the mass public, and regardless of how you feel about him... he’s helped these people.
Courtney B I cant believe I thought was he was pure evil for the longest time . It wasn’t till someone in my family died a long painful death that I became more death positive.
What's worse is when they block suicides by putting fences, block gun sales and rental, when are people people going to realize that forcing people to live is form of humiliation/torture.
The government does not want you to die because that's gonna set a trend and they will begin to loose taxpayers that's the bottom line , it has nothing to do with them caring for the mass population
Why should anyone presume to tell me how much suffering I must endure as my life coming to end?
The whole system and society were so cruel for Dr.Keworkian.
I am a doctor and know that a lot of my colleges helped their friends and family members to end their sufferings.
Why such a HUMAN act has to be done secretly?
My dream is to have such choice and assistance when my time comes.
For those who have opposite opinion, please, you do have right to choose your way of the end.
It's not about people who are able to choose themselves, but people who could be vulnerable to be pressured into "suicide" and it could be like eugenics. People being made to feel like a burden and guilted into dying. That's the difficulty. People should be able to suicide painlessly but there NEEDS to be safeguards to protect the disabled and the elderly so that only people who TRULY want to die get it. That's why it's not just given out willy nilly.
@@ladyreverie7027 I've truely wanted to die for 8 years, where can I get my dose of peace. legalizing The right to die is the ultimate test to prove if free Will exist
@@brendancoffman4342 Hi ,how are you? Hope you're okay.
@@sundus928 idk, better but not happy 😔
@@brendancoffman4342 there are thousands of us who have begged to die. This world is evil and likes to make people suffer. I'm sorry we are still here.
Really great and interesting video. Sad to hear that some people have to starve themselves to death instead of ending their life peacefully and quickly.
Builder Bob just use a gun me dudes, or a household object, anyone who kills them self in any way or even in a stupid way like starvation shouldn’t have been birthed in the first place
@@Jbcblack I mean a lot of old people don't have those things. Like if they live in nursing home the best they can do is find a knife or starve tbh🤷🏼♀️
Breanna Illustrations or they could not be suicidal
@@Jbcblack lmao boi you ignorant
Breanna Illustrations I’m ignorant because other people cant realize what death is?
As controversial as it may be, Jack Kevorkian was a revolutionary. I remember seeing the news coverage as a child and even then, somehow I understood
even a child understands and yet people cant see past their own self righteous judgements or their own fear of the unknown. I imagine you would have to see these people in person though or experience a loved one or even yourself to understand.
dr kevorkian is a great doctor and he is also an empathetic human being
zh11147 When did he ever "murder" someone?
If you're going to compare a licensed doctor relieving someone of chronic pain & stress so they don't have to starve/ dehydrate themselves to death to a pedophile you are quite insane zh11147.
@@DNSL_ Hello?
No. No. And NO! He’s NOT a hero!!! He was a horrible guy especially when it came to certain patients because these certain patients won’t terminally ill and instead end up having more invalid reasons for assisted suicide than the terminally ill reason.
No, he was self serving, egotistical, serial killer. Take a look at his artwork, do you think those demonic creations come from the mind of good doctor or a empathetic human being? the word here is "psychopath" .
Watch someone you love go through a terminal cancer and you will understand his decision to challenge the courts. It is not pompous or audacious to demand that someone be given control over their life and suffering.
I think physician assisted suicide should be legalized. People have the right to choose what happens to their body. Many people at the end of their lives just want to go peacefully. If their only option is to stop medications and stop eating and drinking then they end up dying slowly and painfully. Their loved ones are also affected by having to watch them go through the pain and suffering. I think strict rules should be put in place to avoid abuse of the system and prevent persuasion and a lack of care. It should only be allowed for those who have an inevitable end of suffering. For people who are of full capacity and are able to make clear rational decisions about their life, they should be able to receive assistance in their death. I myself am very religious, and I believe God should choose when your time is up, but for those who want to take their death into their own hands, they should have the right.
I hope the debate on this issue continues. Individuals suffering from unbearable pain should be able to end their lives but at the same time the economy we live in might force some of us to end their lives prematurely. It is a very subtle balance that must be maintained.
Ahmed Medhat Are you muslim? Did not expect this kind of answer from someone with your name.
OpaSann0 In an Oxford Union debate on God's existence the name of the person arguing against God was Ahmed something and the one arguing for God was Will Craig. Also Dr. Mohamed Noor is the professor of coursera's Introduction to Genetics and Evolution. This is a very big world my friend, it makes you question everything conventional.
cinnamon 222 I didn't mean it as a negative thing, rather a positive. I just didn't expect it ;)
that terrible starvation is an awful way to go omg
CHICKEN Permission , Not really. Starvation is painless.
MeatRocket99 have you ever had hunger pains? Have you ever had cotton mouth from dehydration? Enduring that and much worse, for ten days. Ten whole days. Not painless.
Dehydration hurts plus is to easy to reach for water.
@@ashdamm9007 I'm an RN, and I've seen many people die of starvation/dehydration, and - honestly - it appears to be a very peaceful death. They don't have to be given extreme amounts of medication to sedate them, they don't thrash around or cry or tell me that they're in pain. I don't have an ethical issue with an elderly/demented/terminally ill patient dying that way, meaning that I absolutely DO NOT feel as if the patient is being harmed, and they do not report that they are either.
Rocket99 If you believe that you've never truly been hungry
I am a huge Dr Kevorkian supporter. He was a prodigal man and didn't get the respect he deserved.
Train Magic here you are again. Are you actually this dumb? Is it really bad to let someone who is in never ending pain die?
Nobody could ever understand the pain i feel. Dealing with this year in and year out really takes your quality of life and flushes it down the toilet. I should be able to stop this pain once and for all...any way i wish. If you dont believe in assisted suicide, dont do it. But, leave me and my rights out of your decision.
the idea that people chose death by dehydration over living under the bad circumstances of their fatal diseases makes it very clear that assisted suicide should at least in some cases be an option.
I agree with this. If someone has an extreme illness and have zero chance of recovering and are In absolute pain then they should have an option like this. Doctors should definitely take all measures and care first before taking this step.
If I was dying or in constant pain and wanting to take my own life, I would much rather do it this way. I could die with dignity and peacefully or I could go blow my brains out. I imagine it would be much harder on a family to have to go ID a body found hanging in the woods vs. spending my last moments with the ppl I love.
*Anyone who is against assisted suicide has not felt the pain these people have.*
*There's no worse feeling than knowing that there's no way out of suffering.*
A doctor before his time. 😔 Society wasn’t ready for JK.
Definitely agree. Way before his time
Thank you Dr. Kevorkian. You understood that people wanted to go with dignity and on their own terms. Way before we were ready for this conversation.
If someone can say "I want to die" without influence from others, they deserve that right.
I just watched my terminally ill mother in law pass away at age 52. The hardest, worst thing I ever had to see. She shouldn’t have had to lay there and suffer for weeks.
Your Mom loves you 💗
My mom suffers from an autoimmune disease that has destroyed her life. She is a shadow of the person she once was and lives with so much pain every day. A few times we have discussed this very thing. I never want my mom gone, I’ll never be ready. But I certainly believe she has the right to choose when and how she goes.
It isn’t about the burden.
It isn’t about the price of medications.
It is about letting someone who is suffering from something incurable and in pain beyond my own comprehension end things peacefully...in her way. 💔
If I have a terminal illness, of course I'd want to fight it and do everything in my power to relieve pain and suffering. But I'd also want the option of a quick and painless exit, even if I didn't use it.
The people railing against assisted suicide are same zealots who want abortion illegal. Nevermind that home abortions and suicides are often gory, painful and ineffective; these people want to control what YOU do with your body.
I'm pro life and pro assisted suicide. Every human has a right to life, once you have life it's your right to do with it what you want, including ending it.
Why does he have the exact kind of name that someone who invents a death machine would have
Because he was the death machine.
He has an armenian name
@@utemkes I'm Armenian and yes its Armenian name.
He was my doctor when I was a kid. Really nice man actually. Good bedside manner. Don't think my parents knew about all this.
are you for real?
"Hit the road Jack, and don't ya come back no more"
Really? Using song lyrics to help your case?
That dude was so funny lol
He might be a wife beater 😠
I love these retro reports, keep them coming!
Carlie Andrews , Hi!
It just makes me so angry that strangers, doctors, and politicians feel that they can make decisions about my life! It's my life, I alone know my suffering, and I alone should be able to make this decision.
Exactly.
For Christ sakes, if I'm going to die anyway, leave me the choice to die with dignity through medically assisted suicide ------ NOT prolong my agony just because every day I live is a day more paid to 💸💰 *health care* 💰💸
IT'S UP TO THE PATIENT! It's their life, not the governments! Props to Oregon too, probably the most free state in america
@Train Magic I mean, Alabama has a few openings if you'd like to visit?
i think that people deserve to be relieved from their suffering, and i’ve watched a lot of my family die in crippling ways. my grandfather had three types of cancers, and was bed bound at the time of his death. my great grandmother had alzheimers and schizophrenic tendencies, eventually stopping talking all together. her last few words were her expressing her need to die.
I've never met a doctor or nurse who worked with chronic pain patients and didn't support the Right to Die.
I've also talked to quite a few who have provided that supremely compassionate service but are scared to admit it. Heroes.
Rip Jack. A truly beautful mind and soul. I hate how an act so utterly unselfish and kind can be sold to the public as cold blooded murder. A doctor way ahead of his time, doing what doctors should be doing..
Helping their patients!!!
I was in elementary and middle school when this was going on. At that age you tend to have the opinions that your parents have. Which in my house Dr Kavorkian was a nut. As an adult I think the man was pioneer. He got off on the media attention, no doubt. But the man was brilliant and I think that gets overlooked. He helped people who were done fighting and were only alive because relatives wanted them alive.
I grew up where assisted suicide was 🚭 not acceptable and dr. Jack Kevorkian was considered as a 👍 nut. This is really a very hard and personal subject permission to speak about. I say that because we know that there are a lot of wonderful doctors out there, but I haven't experienced a couple that I would have never gone back to. I'll never forget the bedside manner of this particular doctor 💊. He had me so afraid, after I was actually admitted into the hospital, and I ended up leaving against doctors advice. I will never forget that there my nurse that actually help me to leave. I will never forget that experience as long as I live. And I would never one for another human being to experience what I went there, but that one quack doctor. In fact I really had forgotten about that experience. I had buried it away, and it came back to me upon reading the comments above. That's why I do not have a personal opinion I trying to judge others, on what they feel they must do for theirselves. Because we are all children of God, and we all have our own individual thoughts about this matter. This is just such a sensitive subject, that I actually find myself in tears. Thank you.
All those people who endured starvation for days to acquire death because it's illegal for them to get it the way they want is too painful!
This is what makes this nation evil. Not me, but most people enjoy seeing or knowing of others suffering because of irrational laws that prevent a nonviolent, dignified way out of life.
No one was asked to enter this world, so why do we need permission to leave it?
If women say they have the right to do what they want with their own bodies, abortion, even though there's nothing wrong with the baby most of the time, then why take the right away from a terminally ill person that suffers & has no chance of ever getting better. In that sense it's the their body right?! Hypocrisy!
@@SweetyD2023 Abortion doesn't have to be justified by fetal defects. Most abortions happen when there's barely a formed embryo you couldn't even call a baby.
The idea that they just stopped eating and drinking for 10 days until they just died is absolutely horrifying
It's absolutely disgusting that we force terminally ill people to starve themselves in order to die, to make them suffer, when we unanimously agree that a suffering pet should be put down. Human beings are treated less humanely when it comes to end of life suffering than our dogs and cats, and humans are able to verbally say, "I'm done, I want to die". We are not immortal. We will all die someday, and when someone is in the last stages of life, suffering from a disease, it's a moral outrage that we force them to live in pain when we have the ability to stop their suffering when they ask for it to end.
Don't die , the government needs your tax dollars 💵💵💵😁💀🙀💸😭
Don’t die, we need to tax your paycheck!!
“Please die because we don’t want to continue paying your health insurance when you are bound to die without giving anything else to society”
This is not my personal belief just a counter argument
They will hit your fam with a
Death tax so they will win
More like don't die we need them to enlist in the military then they have to follow orders!
@@tobykloo5477 Hospitals are making a profit the longer you are in there. That's part of the reason they mostly oppose assisted suicide while doctors that actually care abou their patients support it.
If someone wants to die who are you to tell them they can't.
Every human being should have the right to do what they want with their bodies, whether it’s to terminate an unwanted pregnancy or to die with dignity in the face of a much more painful death. Nobody should have the choice taken from them because it makes others uncomfortable.
While I believe decision of death should be case by case, terminating an unwanted pregnancy is terminating a tiny human
@@calebsmith1548 a 16 year old cannot adopt a child because she is not financially stable or mature enough to care for the child but she cannot abort her pregnancy.
I was such a fan of this man back in the day. Can't believe we're still not allowed to decide our own fate in the most dire of circumstances.
Like whether or not to shoot someone in the head or not?
Here in Oregon, less than 50% of patients who receive the lethal dose of medication actually end up taking it, they say that having the option to die in a strange way gives them strength to live.
You know what is inhumane? Telling suffering patients the only way they can die is to starve and dehydrate themselves to the point of death.
I can see the argument on both sides, but the against side uses far too many “what if” hypotheticals.
“What if people feel like a burden and take it bc of that”
“What if doctors prescribe it over care for making their life better and living through the pain”
“What if’s” aren’t reasons to just completely forbid the option from even being there for people who the above doesn’t apply to.
Well I think it's morally wrong. That'd where the what ifs come from. Different arguments have to be made for different sides.
The fact that some people think helping a suffering person die with dignity is killing? I'm a teen myself, but i think no matter what the age I know if I had limited time left, and I knew that time would be filled with agony, and.. just not a good quality of life I would want to die safely and humainly... That is my HUMAN right.
Euthanasia can be one of the most merciful and beautiful thing ever.
I've cried times and times again when I watch people go peacefully in Switzerland. Jus beautiful and it should be a human right to die!
I have so much respect for this Doctor. People with fatal diseases everywhere should have this choice, so they don't have to commit desperate suicideatemts, like jumping from a roof, get under a train or hang themselves. He gave them a way to die peacefully. ♡♡♡ to this sympathetic doc !
TH-cam needs to put dates on when these were posted and when they are/were recorded or aired. It leaves you confused as to when in history this was happening.
I support assisted suicide but I understand why some people are disturbed by it. We're taught to do anything to keep someone alive, and this is a grim turn of events the idea- the reality- that some people do not want to live because of suffering.
If someone is terminally ill and all treatments and hope of recovery have been exhausted, they should be allowed to die if they want. Keeping them clinging to life by a thread because we'd be devastated to lose them is selfish. If we euthanize our pets when they're clearly suffering, why not do the same for our human loved ones if they choose so?
Death isnt what people are afraid of. Suffering is. If theres no quality of life, that is suffering. I support what this man did 100%
Imagine living on a planet where you don't even have control over how you want to die
I think if a family has the right to decide to have a relative off of life support, then a patient should also be able to make the decision to die on their own. Not everyone wants to suffer to death in a hospital bed.
I worked with Compassion and Choices to add Colorado to the list of states that have legalized compassionate end-of-life treatment options. Seven states now have laws involving death with dignity. If you believe people have the right to die consider supporting Compassion and Choices or Death with Dignity
I really respect Dr. Kavorkian. He truly fought for a cause that he believed in no matter what it cost him.
4:00 this isn’t too related to the video but i’m OBSESSED with this transition. it’s so smart using the interviewer saying “how do i get the widest possible audience?” and then starkly transition into the 60 minutes intro, something any american would be able to recognize. it’s great editing
Now not even pain meds for pain patients especally if the patient has a history of addiction its all wrong to deny any persons meds or whatever helps . Its all our right to die peacefully.
This guy did a good job - a job no other doctor was willing to do because it's more profitable to keep people alive and suffering than end their life in a humane fashion.
As an M.S. patient for over 3 decades. I absolutely believe I should have the right to chose. I'm so tired of everyone else telling me how I should live. Take my pain & then maybe I'll listen, till that's possible, let me be!
Many of these people are experiencing existences that can only be described as torture. While we have some very backward people regarding what constitutes torture, we've agreed as a society that torture of innocent people is unacceptable.
The criminalization of doctor assisted suicide is condemning innocent people to torture.
He’s a good man. He should have never been sent to prison
these retro reports are so good!
keeping people around just to spare ourselves the uncomfortable emotions
I am a Christian always have been always will be. Now before anyone bashes me or the Bible consider this. There is NO WHERE in the Bible that says that assisted ending of life (I hate the term suicide) is a sin. Nor should it be. The closest thing we have is the death of Judas which wrong for a completely different reason (read up on it). The ending of a life can be a beautiful thing. I have seen a lot of people suffer at the end and that is NOT what God wants. Again the Bible does NOT say that this is a sin. I hope that clears things up for some people. I don't know if I would go quite so far as to say Dr Kevorkian was a saint but he in no way did anything wrong
AJ the Investigator good man I'm Christian to brother
Life is a gift, it should be God who decides when we go.
Amen to that
Very interesting video. Thank you so much for making it. :)
this man is a blessing. some people don't want to suffer, from their illnesses. some people want to go on their own terms, in their own comfort. allow them that.
This may be the most controversial subject in healthcare today. We see laws all over the world about physician assisted suicide and different ways it is handled. This subject is heart wrenching on one side it is easy to see the argument over how this is murder or how if this is allowed perfectly healthy people will abuse this. On the other side it is easy to understand when seeing patients who are suffering for debilitative diseases that are in horrible pain it pulls you to the other side of the argument as well. A wonderful documentary about this subject is “The Suicide Tourist” this documentary is about an American professor now living in Europe who was diagnosed with ALS who decides that he is ready to die. It is hard to just say someone should have the right to just end their life because it is a life. I also believe that people do have a right over their own lives, those with terminal illnesses going through incredible pain have the ability to choose how and when they die. This is just an incredibly heavy subject that is hard to take a definite side on.
yes I feel the exact same way. On one hand life is precious and the decision to end a life is permanent so the person has to really think it through and some lawmakers are clearly sceptical of some doctors intentions I guess? But of course terminal illness is brutal and no one should suffer in starvation just because there's no way around it. But it is a really sad debate overall.
People have the right to die with dignity
I was born in Michigan in 87 so I've heard about Dr. Kevorkian my entire life, but never knew the details. What a hero.
Great video. Really had me emotional.
jack was a great man.
***** okay well he was okay I guess:)
roni almasi Chris probably is one of them people who wouldn't understand until it happens to him...the only reason I gave in is because he didn't give me enuff/enough reason to even care about his comment.
It's millions of people who would have wished that jack was around..some of the most painful diseases in history...jack wasn't saving lives..he was doing better..making a person feel comfortable with the afterlife ECT.
And now what? Terminal patients are dying in pain and can't even get relief thanks to all the narcotics that were handed out so freely that helped create a nationwide epidemic of addiction. I don't care what level of education you have, it's not up to you to decide what others do to help themselves.
STUMBLED ACROSS THIS CHANNEL AND BEEN BINGING ALL DAY 🤷🏾♂️
If a person is in their right mind and they are suffering from something that is terminal and will only cause more suffering they should be able to decide how and when to end their own life.
If we can put sick pets down, we should be able to put sick humans down too.
Frankly, judging from the comments here and the general tenor of society today, we only need to ask our state legislatures to place the issue on the ballots: the people with overwhelmingly vote an individuals' right to die into law.
Then the suffering will cease.
This man WAS A LEGEND!!!!
He was the only example of what a pure human being should be.