In this Times article, Bette Rollin, a board member of the Death With Dignity Nation Center, states that the recently deceased Dr. Kevorkian failed to understand what the death with dignity movement is all about.
I debated Dr. Kevorkian shortly before he was sent to prison because he killed a paralyzed patient by administering a legal dose of medicine. At that time Oregon and Washington had already passed laws permitting a doctor to prescribe a lethal medicine dose, but they were not permitted to administer it. California was passing laws that permitted physicians to withhold or withdraw life supporting measures for patients who were comatose because of irreversible brain damage.
California never past a law that permitted physician assisted suicide, but no matter how carefully the doctor prescribes, there is always a risk of overdose. All medicines are poison! If the patient takes too much medicine, there may be serious side effects and even death.
I recall two severely depressed patients who killed themselves by ingesting a huge over dose of reactively safe medicines that I had prescribed. Obviously these two patients had saved medicines for this purpose. The police found several, long expired, empty prescription bottles adjacent to the deceased patients. But it doesn't require pills to committee suicide. One of my patients jumped out of a third story window to his death, after a heated argument with his wife.
A doctor cannot always prevent a patient's death, but we are not Kevorkians.
Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. Kirschner's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses the health care inequities in the U. S. and offers some solutions.
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