A Free Man Again

After nine years in prison, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was released from prison today, looking only slightly more skeletal than he ever did, though in much worse health. Since his 2nd degree murder conviction, there have been no inroads made on the assisted suicide front and I hope that his release will, once again, ignite the debate. To date, only Oregon has accepted an individual's right to decide his or her own fate and, over and over again, other states' motions fail miserably. That the government believes that they no better than I do what I should do with my own body smacks of the theocracy that we claim we don't live under. While it's true that the Christian faith condemns suicide (though more in Dante than anywhere else), the Bible and the church also abhors a woman's menstrual cycle, but our government can't pretend to regulate this, nor do they have the right to regulate the other. Honestly, it's amazing to me that Oregon's law hasn't been stricken, but I'm glad it hasn't. At 79 and rife with sickness, Kevorkian likely has precious little time left on this planet, but I hope that he is able to spend more time advocating, if not practicing, assisted suicide. This is not a question of taking joy in an individual's pain, it is about relieving it, as well as easing the burden people feel when they are so dependant on everybody but themselves and their broken bodies.