From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Mon Apr 05 1999 - 11:12:22 MDT
> [Kevorkian trial]
>> I'm surprised there is not more outcry against this. What this court
>> decision means is YOU don't own your life, the government does.
This particular case was not that simple. The ALS patient in this
case was physically capable of making the willful act necessary to
end his own life (when appropriately attached to an apparatus for
this that Dr. K uses frequently), but in this case he did not--the
Dr. actually took that act. "Consent" is not so clear here. If
he was capable of expressing a desire to die, and capable of doing
the act, why didn't he? I certainly don't think suicide should be
a crime, even when assisted, but if a patient /can/ perform the
final act himself but /will/ not, then I think his verbal consent
is of dubious value, and it is appropriate for a jury to look into
questions such as whether the family pressured the doctor into
performing the procedure, or whether the doctor's own agenda was
better served than the patient.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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