By Gary Geyer, Editor in Chief.

“After spending eight years in prison for helping terminally ill people end their lives, “Dr Death”, as he is sometimes called, has recently been released.”
At “Let Life In” we believe that people over 50 should have the right to experience everything life has to offer- the good things as well as the things that are less than good. But should that include the right to end one’s life, to ‘let life out,’ so to speak?

We think so.

Unfortunately, it appears that The New York Times doesn’t agree. At least in the way they say Dr Kervorkian has gone about it.

The occasion of Dr. Kervorkian being released from prison has rekindled the controversy.

Basically the Times’s feeling is that Dr Kervorkian’s methods were wrong. They said, on their editorial page, that he was reckless and performed assisted suicides badly by not validating the patient’s request and suffering thoroughly.

That may or may not be true. However, The Times, we believe misses the point. By heading their editorial “Dr. Kervorkian’s Wrong Way,” it creates the impression that they believe assisted suicide is “wrong.”

The controversy is over the question, “should people who are terminally ill and in pain have the right to request help in ending their lives with dignity?”

It seems to us at LetLifeIn.com, that what Dr Kervorkian has done is bring the subject, to the nightly news and to the front page of every newspaper in the country. Unfortunately, the press for the most part hasn’t been as supportive as they could have been. It was they who, after all gave Kervorkian the nick name “Dr. Death,” which has ‘tabloidized’ the issue. But, the fact that every time Dr Kervorkian’s name is in the news the subject comes up is good.

Kervorkian said he is extremely upset that in the years he was in prison, we as a nation did nothing to pass new laws allowing assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. We agree.

He refers to the government as “tyrants” and calls the public “sheep.” His most cutting remarks are directed to his critics, who he refers to as “religious fanatics or nuts.” (To be fair, we at LetLifeIn.com don’t think The New York Times falls into either of those categories.)

The Times should have made it perfectly clear that they believe that a person should have the right to die with dignity - that assisted suicide should be a patient’s right as well as a legal option should he or she want it.

In criticizing Kervorkian’s methods instead of the cause, they have obscured the issue. <<

What do you think. Do you agree with us or not. Voice your opinion. That’s what ‘Let Life In’ is about.

Gary Geyer is Editor-in-Chief of LetLifeIn.com (Editor@LetLifeIn.com) as well as editor of the Issues & Controversies section. Reach him at Gary@LetLifeIn.com.