This week (Sunday June 5, 2011) pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian passed away at age 83. During the nineteen nineties Kevorkian gained infamy for inventing a machine to administer lethal chemicals to the teminally ill. In the late nineties the cocky physician was tried and convicted of murder after being arrested following one of his 100 some-odd "assisted suicides". he spent about six years behind bars. According to an obituary I read, early in Kevorkian's career he advocated giving Death Row inmates the option of donating their organs to those who could use them. He soon abandoned the idea. He was a hero to those who would rather die than to endure the pain of terminal illness or exist as brain-dead 'vegetables' surviving in an incapacitated comatose state with feeding tubes etc., and a villain to those who oppose euthanasia and likely those in the so-called Pro Life movement. I applaud his courage. I wouldn't want to be in a permanent vegetative state, but on the other hand I wouldn't necessarily want a fallible doctor or other health care professional to determine whether or not I or someone I care for is worth keeping alive in case of illness or tragedy.
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