Washington D.C.’s Right to Die
Jack Kevorkian, or Dr. Death, announced plans to run as an independent in the next Michigan Congressional race, according to the New York Times’ Lede blog, which asked whether Dr. Death would be able to put Washington out of its misery!
This time last year, Dr. Kevorkian had just been released after an eight-year prison sentence for facilitating the suicide of a man with Lou-Gehrig’s disease. At the time of his release, public opinion polls showed that more than two thirds of Americans believe in a person’s right to die, but many disagree about whether a doctor should legally be able to provide the means by which a patient commits suicide.
Doctors also feel this tension between upholding their oath to protect life, and their obligation to the wishes of their patients. When Bigthink asked Dr. Ira Byock of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center about the right to die, he admitted to having interrupted numerous attempted suicides. However, he conceded that in the case of terminally ill patients, assisted suicide may uphold his role as a care-giver more than prolonging a patient’s suffering.
