In response to Sam Cain's Monday letter about Dr. Jack Kevorkian, I think Kevorkian did nothing to help suffering people. He killed a lot of suffering people, that's true. But he didn't help them. A doctor is successful in helping the patient if the doctor can treat or cure the patient's condition. If the patient dies, then the doctor was unsuccessful. And if the doctor kills the patient, the doctor is not only unhelpful, but also a killer.
Kevorkian isn't interested in helping suffering people. He's interested in killing suffering people. Of the more than 130 people he killed (only 30 percent of whom were terminally ill), did he ever offer any sort of treatment for their illnesses? Did he ever try to work with Hospice or try to reform the health care system for the elderly, handicapped and mortally ill? No, he never did any of those things for his patients. In fact, several of Kevorkian's patients died within 24 hours of meeting him for the first time.
Kevorkian promotes the idea that a life of suffering is a life not worth living. But the value of a person's life is not dependent on the quality of life.
