• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

We survived Breitbartpocalypse!

Let there be snark.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Trump is going to draw a dick on that dog with a sharpie, isn’t he?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Everybody saw this coming.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Yes we did.

How has Obama failed you today?

Women: they get shit done

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

How do you get liars to care about the truth?

We still have time to mess this up!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

… down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

We need fewer warriors in public service and more gardeners.

Too inconsequential to be sued

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Tick tock motherfuckers! Tick fucking tock!

Mobile Menu

  • Look Forward & Back
  • Balloon Juice 2021 Pet Calendar
  • Site Feedback
  • All 2020 Fundraising
  • I Voted!
  • Take Action: Things We Can Do
  • Team Claire, and Family
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • BJ PayPal Donations
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Nature & Respite
  • Information As Power
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • On The Road
  • Garden Chats
  • Nature & Respite
  • Look Forward & Back
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Kevorkian Dead

Kevorkian Dead

by Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix|  June 3, 20119:54 am| 55 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Facebook0Tweet0Email0

Peacefully, in a hospital bed. He obviously had his issues, but it was what was really crazy is that people suffering and in pain had nobody other than an obvious crackpot to help them end their lives with a tiny bit of dignity. Here’s an open thread in memory of a very strange man who did some good.

Facebook0Tweet0Email0
Previous Post: « A Word About Anthony’s Weiner
Next Post: Edwards Indicted »

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    WereBear

    June 3, 2011 at 9:57 am

    A nice summing up.

    The tragedy was that I think he wanted to do good; yet he wound up helping people die who were NOT terminally ill, IIRC.

    Though they were suffering; and our stupid drug laws kept them from the help they needed. The new emphasis on pain management is partly due to him.

  2. 2.

    Cacti

    June 3, 2011 at 10:02 am

    Kevorkian’s most positive legacy is that he forced the country to have a conversation about a previously taboo topic.

  3. 3.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 3, 2011 at 10:06 am

    I think he just liked to watch people die. Did he record his own death?

  4. 4.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    June 3, 2011 at 10:08 am

    Imagine the look on the little girl’s face the day she realizes that she’s not going to get to be on Dancing With the Stars or a reality show like her older sister.

    Something tells me that this one won’t be graduating from high school on time with her class like her oldest brother and sister.

    Palin/Trump 2012!

  5. 5.

    kdaug

    June 3, 2011 at 10:10 am

    My definition of hell on earth is a Shaivo-esqe existence on life support for years, with no chance of recovery, draining my families’ resources that could be better spent on the living.

    YMMV.

  6. 6.

    alwhite

    June 3, 2011 at 10:10 am

    There is a new case, just recently, of a woman charged for providing the tools to end it all to people. So the debate will continue.

    If your pet were terminal you might agonize over the choice, you might weep and fret, but at some point you would know that the poor thing suffering is not living a life worth living and you would end the pain and misery. But if it was you that is terminal and the pain unbearable, well thats just too damn bad.

  7. 7.

    Linda Featheringill

    June 3, 2011 at 10:14 am

    Has our society reached the point where only crazy people try to do good or is it that trying to do good in this society drives you crazy?

    It seems he had a peaceful death. Good.

    RIP.

  8. 8.

    Bruce S

    June 3, 2011 at 10:15 am

    Kevorkian may have been a crank, but the REAL sociopaths we still have with us…

    http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/06/are-you-lookin-at-me.html

  9. 9.

    kdaug

    June 3, 2011 at 10:16 am

    @alwhite:

    There is a new case, just recently, of a woman charged for providing the tools to end it all to people.

    Second-amendment remedy?

  10. 10.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 3, 2011 at 10:17 am

    My elderly and infirm (at that time) mother thought he was a hero.

  11. 11.

    Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory

    June 3, 2011 at 10:19 am

    There are very, very few people willing to do anything to help those that are suffering.

    The number of those who are willing to go to jail for it I can count on the fingers of one hand.

    Call him a crackpot if you will. He will someday be remembered as a saint.

  12. 12.

    PeakVT

    June 3, 2011 at 10:19 am

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: If looks could kill, Our Grifter-in-Chief would be a pile of hamburger right now.

  13. 13.

    4jkb4ia

    June 3, 2011 at 10:27 am

    Noted without comment. No, 4jkb4ia has never established a record on this blog of being obsessive-compulsive about ANYTHING. /s

    (Summary: Palin is not behaving at any of her stops as though she really is on vacation.)

  14. 14.

    Cris

    June 3, 2011 at 10:28 am

    As my grandmother lay in hospice, waiting for her organs to finish failing, she said to my mother, “I wish Dr. Kevorkian was here.”

    I think Cacti sums it up quite nicely.

  15. 15.

    Chrisd

    June 3, 2011 at 10:29 am

    In a related vein, my state–Ohio–is committed to cracking down on the prescription drug abuse “epidemic”. Docs are going to be leery treating patients with chronic pain, and that means undertreatment. Regrettable, perhaps, but a necessary trade-off in the all-important War on Drugs.

  16. 16.

    Steve

    June 3, 2011 at 10:34 am

    Kevorkian was a local celebrity where I grew up. Back during the height of the controversy, our heavily Republican county supported his cause by a 2-1 margin. The Republican county prosecutor got voted out of office because people were sick of him hounding the guy. Hard to believe he ended up going to prison for trying to help people have some dignity in their last hours.

  17. 17.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    June 3, 2011 at 10:47 am

    @kdaug: Well, of COURSE there’s a second amendment remedy.

    and if the GOP has its way, that may be the only remedy left to you, so make sure to prepare a list of the people you want to accompany you on your journey to Valhalla, with special attention to those who made the trip inevitable.

  18. 18.

    Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory

    June 3, 2011 at 10:49 am

    I might add that we as a society refuse to do for our loved ones what we would do – indeed, are required by law to do – for the animals that we eat, namely, insure that they have a quick and painless death.

    Says a lot, and none of it good, that we treat our food better than we treat each other.

  19. 19.

    kerFuFFler

    June 3, 2011 at 10:52 am

    I fear that our country won’t have moved on this issue by the time I’m facing death. We’re so damn afraid of slippery slopes that we are stuck with extreme positions with no room for judgment, wisdom or compassion.

  20. 20.

    Martin

    June 3, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: We should have a caption contest for that photo. My submission: “Seriously, is it too late for you to abort me?”

  21. 21.

    Paul in KY

    June 3, 2011 at 10:56 am

    @Martin: Mine is:

    “I can’t believe I believed her when she said we were going to Disneyworld. I’m as stupid as her fans!”

  22. 22.

    Violet

    June 3, 2011 at 11:11 am

    @Martin:

    We should have a caption contest for that photo.

    “No more wire hangers, my ass.”
    “I can’t wait to sell my memoirs.”
    “Keep it up, mom. The October surprise is even better when it’s from family.”
    “You’ll look nice when I put you in a home.”

  23. 23.

    geg6

    June 3, 2011 at 11:25 am

    I respect and admire the very eccentric Dr.Kevorkian. He truly was devoted to allowing people in great need and pain to end their lives in dignity and on their own terms. His work has changed end of life medicine and law. Having taken my mother through a long, difficult death but one in which she chose her own moment to stop all treatment and die with dignity, I support the notion that we should all choose, if physically and mentally possible, our own exit strategies.

  24. 24.

    Linda Featheringill

    June 3, 2011 at 11:30 am

    @Snarki, child of Loki:
    Yeah! Who wants to enter Valhalla alone? Geez! :-)

  25. 25.

    Jay in Oregon

    June 3, 2011 at 11:36 am

    @PeakVT:

    I’m holding out some hope that Piper will not turn out like Mama Grizzly or her eldest sister.

    Pictures like that fill me with some hope, but she’s got a long way to go…

  26. 26.

    4jkb4ia

    June 3, 2011 at 11:41 am

    Andrea Hlavackova and Lucia Hradecka win the women’s doubles title. These two were the definition of journeypeople, never getting beyond the Round of 16 in any Grand Slam event before.

  27. 27.

    scarshapedstar

    June 3, 2011 at 11:46 am

    He was on Bill Maher not too long ago. He was frickin’ awesome, very witty and unapologetic. A crackpot, in my mind, is someone with a thousand-yard stare who can’t explain wtf they’re rambling about.

    Exhibit A.

  28. 28.

    JustPeachyAndYou

    June 3, 2011 at 11:58 am

    In our family, we have always been disgusted by the fact that we can help our very ill pets to die peacefully and comfortably, but humans must be kept alive, in pain or drugged to insensibility or brain-dead, until the basic biological mechanism finally wears out. Kevorkian opened an honest dialogue, and Schiavo caused many people to make living wills, but we’ve got a long way to go.

    And don’t even get me started on humane pain management.

  29. 29.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    June 3, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    A guy who believed people should be granted the same relief from suffering we regularly give our housepets is not a crackpot.

    A guy who believes women should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term regardless of her wishes and should be subjected to government scrutiny to make sure she does so … THAT’S a crackpot.

    Rest in Peace, doctor.

  30. 30.

    Fortygeek

    June 3, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    @Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory:

    This.
    ETA…my dad has said something along those lines as long as I can remember.

  31. 31.

    Elie

    June 3, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    @geg6:

    devoted to allowing people in great need and pain to end their lives in dignity and on their own terms.

    To me, this is the crux: He facilitated the control of this decision to be placed more in the hands of the individual and his/her family. Where it should be. A private, personal decision that should not be abridged by religion or government. Personal, private.

  32. 32.

    WyldPirate

    June 3, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    @Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory:

    You summed it up, Whiskey Screams. Kevorkian wasn’t a crackpot.

    People spend years in anguished misery–both physical and mental–and never get relief from it. Who the fuck is the “state” to tell you when you are sick and tired of living with the pain and misery and choose to turn out your own lights.

  33. 33.

    MBunge

    June 3, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Anybody who thinks Kevorkian was a saint or the issue of assisted suicide is simple should ask themselves a question. Did none of Kevorkian’s clients have access to a working automobile and a garage?

    Mike

  34. 34.

    Pococurante

    June 3, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    What makes him a crackpot? Not getting it…

  35. 35.

    Steve

    June 3, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    @MBunge: I think you’re not as far ahead of the rest of us in your thinking as you believe you are. The entire point of Kevorkian’s work is that some people want to die with a little more dignity than being found dead in your garage one day.

  36. 36.

    Elliecat

    June 3, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    @WereBear:

    The tragedy was that I think he wanted to do good; yet he wound up helping people die who were NOT terminally ill, IIRC.

    yeah, this is where I part ways with so many on the left. We accuse the right of seeing things in black and white but on this, there often seems a distinterest in shades of gray on the left.

    Though they were suffering; and our stupid drug laws kept them from the help they needed. The new emphasis on pain management is partly due to him.

    yes, I always wonder why so many immediately accept that suffering calls for death rather than discussing how we can alleviate suffering.

    I wish the discussion about these subjects on the left could be more complex than kneejerk support for assisted suicide and, apparently, euthanasia, since I don’t know what else Shiavo was about.

  37. 37.

    Persia

    June 3, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    @Elliecat:

    yes, I always wonder why so many immediately accept that suffering calls for death rather than discussing how we can alleviate suffering.

    Same here. And remember a lot of seriously/terminally ill people don’t want to be ‘a burden’ on their families. In this country, if you’re seriously ill and you want your family to keep any money/time they have, you’re quite literally better off dead. That’s fucked.

  38. 38.

    Djur

    June 3, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    I wish the discussion about these subjects on the left could be more complex than kneejerk support for assisted suicide and, apparently, euthanasia, since I don’t know what else Shiavo was about.

    There are a lot of Disability Rights blogs where you can find other people who believe that human biology, not cognition, creates personhood.

  39. 39.

    evinfuilt

    June 3, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My elderly and infirm (at that time) mother thought he was a hero

    I’m neither old or infirm and I think he was a hero.

  40. 40.

    Ruckus

    June 3, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    @Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
    Exactly.

    @Steve:
    No kidding.
    Dying in a garage with the motor running, or with a shot to the head require someone to find the body and clean up afterwards. Dr. K wanted to provide another way to accomplish the same ends with dignity.

    As someone who has had to make end of life decisions for another who was incapable I can say with assurance that I wished a better way than dope them up with morphine and pull up a chair. They will in fact be dead in a week but the only thing we can do is wait. It is quite disheartening.

  41. 41.

    evinfuilt

    June 3, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    @Jay in Oregon:
    She could be the next Reagen (well the good son.) Growing up in a family with a senile matriarch might drive someone to politics and do something good.

  42. 42.

    Ruckus

    June 3, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    @Elliecat:
    It is not a knee jerk call for assisted suicide. It is a call for those who have no possibility of living not to be forced to do so. It is not and should not be the only tool in the box but it should be in there.

    Why is it any business of anyone else if I live or die? Why should it be the business of the state? A concern for sure but why does the decision belong to anyone else? Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I have a right to pursue my life, all of it. I don’t control the start but as an adult why don’t I have the right to control the rest of it, including the end?

  43. 43.

    iPirate

    June 3, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    A flawed hero.

  44. 44.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    June 3, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    Where have you gone, Doc Kevorkian?
    A nation turns its aging eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
    What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson,
    You’ll need the Doc, but now he’s gone away?
    (Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)

  45. 45.

    BobbyV

    June 3, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    Scene: Heaven’s Pearly Gates

    St. Peter: Dr. Kevorkian, why do you hate Southern Baptists?

    Dr. Kevorkian: But I don’t hate Southern Baptists. I just wish they’d been held underwater a few minutes longer.

  46. 46.

    Moik

    June 3, 2011 at 5:22 pm

    Hey John, remember how great the microbrews are here in Wisconsin?

    http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=33683

    The Republicans (and three of the Democrats) are trying to screw over the microbreweries in favor of the megabreweries like Miller, and I don’t see how this could possibly end well for them. There’s going to be a protest here at the capitol in about an hour – you DO NOT fuck with us Wisconsinites’ beer.

  47. 47.

    maus

    June 3, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    @Pococurante: Yeah,

    an obvious crackpot

    is a real jerk move.

    He’s not a quack, he was certainly eccentric, but who else would risk his life and career to bring the NECESSARY ethical questions and defend the right to die?

    The same questions and issues happen in hospice care all the time already. When my father was dying of cancer and we didn’t want him suffering any more, the doctor ever so politely described how much more morphine drops we could give him to end it all.

    Granted, my mother refused because she didn’t think that she could have ever lived with herself had she not waited that extra time, but if this was more out in the open, she wouldn’t have held that against herself as much and saved a month or two of pain, and terror for my father being trapped in a painful husk.

    Make fun of him all you want, he bought into the “crazy” theme because he was brave enough to stand up to the system and people who would otherwise malign him as a demon. I’m sure it was a coping method more than anything else, why wouldn’t one turn to art and music when surrounded by sorrow and death?

  48. 48.

    maus

    June 3, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    @Moik: @47:

    The Republicans (and three of the Democrats) are trying to screw over the microbreweries in favor of the megabreweries like Miller, and I don’t see how this could possibly end well for them. There’s going to be a protest here at the capitol in about an hour – you DO NOT fuck with us Wisconsinites’ beer.

    The megabrewers screwed with Washington state’s liquor privatization enough that we voted against all the competing, hideously flawed initiatives and we’re still stuck with a terrible liquor control board and state-operated sales.

  49. 49.

    Catpause

    June 3, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: My terminal mother also supported his work, as do I. She was a retired nurse from an epoch that saw more suffering than treatment. Ironically, in the catholic hospitals were she worked there were some doctors that practiced dignity in death to some small degree. History will judge Dr K favorably.

  50. 50.

    Moonbatman

    June 3, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    He is a convicted criminal just like ACORN filmmaker James O’keefe.

    Peace Out. The Power is Yours. Free Crystal Mangum

  51. 51.

    LT

    June 3, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    Very well said, mistermix.

  52. 52.

    RossInDetroit

    June 3, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    Saw this thread late. I met him a few years ago and signed his petition for candidacy for the Senate. We chatted a bit and he seemed just like any other kindly old man.

    We live in a strange world.

  53. 53.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    June 4, 2011 at 1:25 am

    RIP.

  54. 54.

    jim filyaw

    June 4, 2011 at 10:53 am

    go gentle, bro

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Edwards Indicted « Cosmogenium's Weblog says:
    June 3, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    […] « Kevorkian Dead You can’t raise a Cain back up when he’s in defeat […]

Primary Sidebar

Biden-Harris Inauguration

Biden-Harris Inauguration Website
RSVP to Major’s Party

First Event: Tonight 7 pm (1/16)

Official events – watch at top link

Major’s Indoguration Party (1/17)

Do Something!

Call Your Senators & Representatives
Directory of US Senators
Directory of US Representatives
Letter to Elected Officials – Albatrossity
Letter to Elected Officials – Martin

I Got the Shot!

🎈Ways to Support Our Site

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal
Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice ⬇  

Recent Comments

  • Low Key Swagger on Good Cops (Jan 17, 2021 @ 2:47pm)
  • Betty Cracker on Breaking: Alexei Navalny’s Plane Landed Safely In Russia; He Was Immediately Arrested (Jan 17, 2021 @ 2:41pm)
  • Baud on Breaking: Alexei Navalny’s Plane Landed Safely In Russia; He Was Immediately Arrested (Jan 17, 2021 @ 2:41pm)
  • Gin & Tonic on Breaking: Alexei Navalny’s Plane Landed Safely In Russia; He Was Immediately Arrested (Jan 17, 2021 @ 2:41pm)
  • zhena gogolia on Breaking: Alexei Navalny’s Plane Landed Safely In Russia; He Was Immediately Arrested (Jan 17, 2021 @ 2:41pm)

Team Claire, and Family

Help for David’s Niece Claire
Claire Updates
Claire update for the holidays 12/23

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year

Featuring

John Cole
Silverman on Security
COVID-19 Coronavirus
Medium Cool with BGinCHI
Information Is Power

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Submit Photos to On the Road
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Meetups: Proof of Life
2021 Pets of Balloon Juice Calendar

Culture: Books, Film, TV, Music, Games, Podcasts

Noir: Favorites in Film, Books, TV
Book Recommendations & Indy Recs
Mystery Recommendations
Medium Cool: What If (Books & Films)
Netflix Favorites
Amazon Prime Favorites
Netflix Suggestions in July
Fun Music Thread
Longmire & Netflix Suggestions
Medium Cool: Places!
Medium Cool: Games!
Medium Cool: Watch or Read Again

Twitter

John Cole’s Twitter

[custom-twitter-feeds]

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!