Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> > [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.
If a person is frozen by fright on the edge of a cliff, does that mean that they don't wish to be rescued?
Mike Lorrey