April 21, 1999
EDITORIAL:
Good medicine for justice & ethics
___Jack Kevorkian's conviction and prison sentence for his role in a televised assisted suicide administered a healthy dose of justice and ethics to an ailing society.
___A Michigan jury ruled Kevorkian, 70, guilty of murder March 26. Last week, Judge Jessica Cooper sentenced "Dr. Death" to 10 to 25 years in prison.
___The case involved the death last September of Thomas Youk, 52, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian injected Youk with a lethal dose of chemicals and videotaped the death. The tape aired two months later on the CBS news program "60 Minutes."
___Kevorkian assisted 130 such suicides during his nine-year campaign to legalize euthanasia, or "mercy killing."
___Kevorkian's case provides good medicine for the nation's judicial system. It insists citizens must live by rule of law. Individuals cannot take the law into their own hands, no matter how caring and compassionate their motives.
___"No one, sir, is above the law. No one," Judge Cooper told Kevorkian.
___Unfortunately, that's not always the prevailing assumption in America today. Americans cherish independence and freedom, sometimes to the point of putting a person above the public and an individual above the law. The erosion of the rule of law, such as Kevorkian's argument that his acts were not murder since they were prompted by concern for a suffering victim, inevitably pushes society toward anarchy. The Michigan jury declared law must prevail over individual intent.
___"This trial was not about the political or moral correctness of euthanasia," Cooper said. "It was about lawlessness. It was about disrespect for a society that exists because of the strength of the legal system."
___Three cheers for the legal system. Thanks to the jury for their clear-minded deliberation and to Cooper for her courageous administration of justice.
___That said, I would respectfully disagree with Cooper's last statement. The case also was about euthanasia, or at least it should have been about euthanasia. The moral and legal aspects of euthanasia are intertwined.
___Let's be up front: Euthanasia, at least as it's usually presented, confronts people with an awful dilemma. It pits compassion against reason. It forces people to decide between a horrible "good"--the taking of a life to alleviate suffering--against a necessary "evil"--the refusal to end suffering based on the conviction that ending a life is murder.
___Look at Thomas Youk. His is the face of euthanasia. Here was an incurably ill man, suffering unspeakable pain. On a personal level, you can build a powerful case that Kevorkian did Youk a favor. The doctor alleviated suffering.
___Up to now, most euthanasia cases have followed Youk's scenario. One-on-one, the ending of life may seem like a small price to pay for cessation of unendurable suffering. Christians, particularly, can understand that reasoning; we know this world is not our home and we will go to a far, far better place.
___But in society, euthanasia is not a one-on-one case. Collectively, it's much more. That's true particularly because of humans' ability to extrapolate from one situation to general principles.
___Youk wanted to die. His suffering ended. But when Kevorkian placed a needle in Youk's vein, he made an ultimate decision, an irreversible decision. (Set aside whether this is "playing God." Given the sophistication of medicine today, doctors "play God" every day.) Together, Youk and Kevorkian decided death was better than life. Whether they meant to or not, they downgraded the value of life.
___Later, who's to say whose life is worth living? Will it be the parent of a retarded child? Or the daughter of a demented dad? How about a judge determining the fate of an ill, homeless, uninsured invalid? Or the son of a wealthy widow?
___Extreme? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Left to time, the ability to extrapolate is limitless. If Thomas Youk's life is not worth living, when will yours be expendable? Who will decide?
___Only God can give life. We who live are bound to protect and preserve it.
___ --Marv Knox
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