...Jack Kevorkian gained notoriety during the 1990s for helping terminally ill people commit suicide. Kevorkian invented a machine that would administer the lethal dose of medication needed to help the people who sought his assistance kill themselves. Kevorkian would then leave the terminally ill patients' bodies at hospital emergency rooms, and at the motels where he assisted with their suicides for someone else to find them. Helping the terminally ill kill themselves was illegal in Michigan at the time that Jack Kevorkian was doing this, and it still is. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced to 10-25 years in prison in 1996 for the assisted death of a Michigan man.


There's now rumblings amongst pro assisted suicide advocates and those against assisted suicide. Both state that Jack Kevorkian's release from prison will refuel the debate on assisted suicide, and Jack Kevorkian has already vowed to continue to advocate for assisted suicide-however, he has stated that he will not help anyone commit suicide. Jack Kevorkian is 79 years old, and has already been offered hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking engagements. However, rumors have it that Kevorkian is ill, and this is why he is getting an early release from prison. I wonder if he will take his own life if he's terminally ill?

Speaking of terminal illness-what would you do if you were diagnosed with a severely painful, and chronic terminal illness that you could never recover from? If assisted suicide were legal in the majority of states (Oregon is the only place it is legal right now), would you seek help in ending your own life to avoid the pain of your terminal illness, or would you stick it out as best you could, and wait on God to take you home? Why or why not?

Do you believe assisted suicide is equivalent to murder, or mercy killing, or should it be accepted as just another stage of the dying process for the terminally ill, and people who are severely handicapped, and can do nothing on their own (not even breath on their own) or for themselves without help? (Before some of you get angry, I would like to say that I don't agree with putting a severely handicapped person to death just because they are in a permanent vegetative state. However, this is part of the debate on assisted suicide, and this is why I am mentioning it.)

Should assisted suicide be considered to be a private matter between the person who is terminally ill, their doctor, and those who are assisting them-should assisted suicide be made legal in all states?

I would never ask for anyones help with assisted suicide because I wouldn't want them to be incarcerated for doing something for me out of love. I also wouldn't want those left behind to experience any belated guilt over the situation after I was gone.

However I really can't say that I view assisted suicide as murder per say. It's actually a loving behavior if someone's loved one is suffering so much that they would prefer to die. At least that's how I view it.

On the severly handicapped issue...I have to disagree with you Mindcrew. If I were like Terri Shiavo was for as long as she was, I would want to be put out of my misery...and quick. That was not living!