Dr. Death and the Double Standard

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was recently released from prison after serving 8 of the 10-25 year sentence he received in 1999. He was convicted of second degree-murder in the poisoning of 52 year-old Thomas Youk (I’m assuming we’re all familiar with Dr. Kevorkian – AKA Dr. Death. He was the vocal and very public advocate of physician assisted suicide during the ‘80s and ‘90s.) His release and return to the spotlight has me thinking: there is a huge double standard here, and I can’t be the only one who sees it.

Why does euthanasia warrant a conviction and prison sentence, while abortion is institutionally legalized? I absolutely refuse to get into the ethics and morality of either euthanasia or abortion in this post. The arguments are too vast, the issues to complex, the passionate parties too, well, passionate. There just doesn’t seem to be any middle ground, and I have serious doubts as to whether the debate will ever be resolved.

That being said, let’s take a look at the mind boggling illogicality that put Dr. Kevorkian behind bars for a decade while abortion clinics flourished.

The law, as it exists in all states except Oregon (and soon California, which is on the verge of legalizing euthanasia), makes it illegal to directly aid in a suicide. This is the reason the state of Michigan was able to procure a conviction in the Thomas Youk case, as opposed to the other 100+ suicides Dr. Kevorkian assisted. Youk was unable to administer the lethal injection himself, so Kevorkian did it for him.

Yet in the case of abortions doctors are directly killing living fetuses. Argue it however you like, it’s still a fact.

In both cases the doctor destroys a breathing, metabolizing being (to avoid the wrath of pro-abortion rhetoricians I won’t say “ends a life”). In both cases the breathing, metabolizing being is one that applicable parties want destroyed.

So if someone could explain to me the difference I’d greatly appreciate it. Oh yeah, here’s the difference: in the case of physician assisted suicide you actually have the permission of the soon to be deceased. I doubt very much they get that same consent from the fetuses.

Like I said, I’m not here to argue the ethics of either. But that one is legal and widely used while the other is a felony proves that laws are completely arbitrary, nonsensical, and the product of powerful lobbyist groups; lawmakers ought to be embarrassed. Make both euthanasia and abortion legal or make them both illegal. I’m not going to say which (that’s not my job), but make them consistent. Until the law is unified the system is a sham.

Thanks for reading.