The Death of Doctor Death: The Greatest Human Rights Activist

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, 1923-2011.

I remember finding my respect for Dr. Jack Kevorkian when my father spoke of him in the early 90s. He had respect for the man as a doctor who is serving his patients' best interests. Since then, I have followed his career to understand how it is he came to believe so strongly in euthanasia.  I guess it was curious to me because I didn't really understand the argument against it and why people were so invested in their certainty that it is immoral.

He passed away today, and this weighs very heavy on me for two reasons. I know death is a natural part of life, as I learned most from Jack, but there is a very large void he leaves in this world as a unique human rights activist, and also as a true hero of mine.

This was a brave man who stood by his beliefs that every man is born with natural human rights and no one can take that away from us. You are born with your right to live and your right do die. Everything else in between is what is forced on us for the sake of others to control us. When asked once in an interview if he believed that heroin should be legal, he said yes. Simply because if someone wants to do such harm to themselves, it is their natural right to do so.

If the world has not learned enough from Dr. Death during his living years, let them learn from him now. Life is to short to waste on such trivial things and we have lost our ways, forgetting the differences between right and wrong. In his passing, I only hope that the rest of us can learn to live without fear, without lie, with respect for human rights and respect for honesty. Rest in peace Dr. Kevorkian, you have earned it.