Jack Kevorkian, sometimes referred to as “Dr. Death,” is known as a pioneer in the physician-assisted suicide movement. He was convicted of second-degree murder and served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on the condition he would not offer advice nor participate nor be present in the act of any type of suicide involving euthanasia to any other person; as well as neither promote nor talk about the procedure of assisted suicide. Image source.

Opening a Door to Assisted Suicide Organ Donors

by Wesley J. Smith
Evolution News

Excerpts:

My first anti-assisted suicide article, in 1993, warned that the practice would lead to conjoining organ donation with euthanasia “as a plumb to society.” That is happening now in Netherlands and Belgium — including people with mental illnesses, no less.

Now, very alarmingly, the United Network for Organ Sharing seems to be opening the door to letting those planning to commit assisted suicide become living organ donors before taking the lethal pills. From its proposed changes to the ethics of living organ donation to allow the terminally ill to participate:

We recommend that individuals with certain fatal diseases be allowed to donate their organs prior to an assisted suicide, but only in those U.S. states where physician assisted suicide is legal and individuals meet the criteria for physician assisted suicide. [Emphasis in the original.]

No! People planning assisted suicide should receive suicide prevention interventions, not implied validation or encouragement to do the lethal deed.

Moreover, there should never be an inducement for the sick and despairing to kill themselves, which this proposal would do if implemented. (And what if the person changed his mind? Indeed, what if he didn’t die as expected?)

If we let the sick and suicidal do this, why not eventually also the healthy and suicidal? Some mental health professionals already assert that a sustained “rational” suicidal desire is akin to a terminal illness.

The paper takes no position on donation after assisted suicide as “outside the scope of this paper.” Trust me, do this, and the latter will soon follow.

Read the full article at Evolution News