Slashdot Mirror
Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83
theodp writes "Jack Kevorkian, the pathologist said to have had a role in more than 130 assisted suicides, has died from kidney-related complications on the eve of the 21st anniversary of his first assisted suicide. Kevorkian, who served more than eight years in prison for second-degree murder, had his story told in the HBO movie You Don't Know Jack. His antics and personality brought a certain approachability to a grim subject — the fundamental right of terminally ill patients to choose to die. 'I will debate so-called ethicists,' he once said. 'They are not even ethicists. They are propagandists. I will argue with them if they will allow themselves to be strapped to a wheelchair for 72 hours so they can't move, and they are catheterized and they are placed on the toilet and fed and bathed. Then they can sit in a chair and debate with me.' RIP, Dr. Jack."
The real problem is that killing old people ... would be a very good investment for insurance companies (and now, for the state). Now insurance companies are bound by the terms of the contracts they signed, the state is not. Insurance companies are bound by the law, and also bound by government to never overstep very limited boundaries. But again, there is no boundary the state cannot cross.
The real question is what will the state do when faced with difficult questions ... cut unemployment benefits below the minimum to support a family, say, or kill old people (which would provide a massive boost to the economy. Fortunately it would be a one-time boost (or it would only be worthwhile every 20-30 years or so at best). For the state the problem is worse than for insurance companies - for the state it is beneficial to kill people the moment they turn unproductive, which tends to be 10-20 years before these people become truly infirm. In the case of chronic unemployment, it can even be 50 years or more before one becomes infirm.
For honorable doctors the question is also moot. The hippocratic oath, taken by every doctor, specifically requires them to swear never to commit euthanasia. Then again, it also specifically forbids abortions. The entirety of medical science was developed, over thousands of years, on the condition that medical science would never be used for either purpose. Viewed in that way, it is also betrayal.