A Letter to the Editor

June 7, 2011

Michael Cooke, Editor

Editorial Department

Toronto Star

One Yonge Street, Fifth Floor

Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E6

Re: Corey Williams, 'Dr Death' dies at 83, decades after homemade suicide machine killed first dying patient, Jun 03, 2011

Dear Editor,

In the report of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's death on Friday at the age of 83, Corey Williams stuck to the general rule of obituaries: 'Do not speak ill of the dead.' Although Dr. Kevorkian raised everyone's consciousness about the problem of end-of-life suffering and spurred others to look for ways for those with terminal illness to end their lives on their own terms, I will still speak ill of him.

First, he devised "suicide machines" that could deliver drugs or carbon monoxide gas and that could be set off by patients. He carted the equipment to patients in his battered Volkswagen van and left many of the resulting 130 or more bodies at emergency rooms or even in hotel rooms. Death, certainly -- but death with dignity, no.

Second, he seemed to make up his methods as he went along. He did not appear to screen patients to determine whether they were actually close to death, and he seemed to make no efforts to get counseling for those who might have wanted to live longer. Some of his victims had no disease found at autopsy, while his last victim did not even commit suicide: Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection. At the time he did not have a medical license. Then, contrary to all limits of professionalism and taste, he filmed the unfortunate man's death and had it televised. His obsession with media and lack of judgment has brought disgrace to the very cause he supported.

Contemporary Physician-Assisted-Dying movements should use him as an example of how not to do it. They must make certain that the patient to be assisted to die must be at the end stage of terminal disease and not have psychiatric disorders like depression. Also, the patient should take the drugs used in the procedure without help, to ensure that the act is voluntary from start to finish.

Sincerely,

Bisa Lovric

Toronto, ON M4Y 2K2