Known as Dr. Death even before launching his fierce advocacy and practice of assisted suicides, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, 83, died today at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak -- right here in Metro Detroit -- where he had been hospitalized with kidney and heart problems. Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who made a celebrity career for himself by defending Kevorkian on many of his assisted suicide cases, gushed: "History will look very favorably upon Dr. Jack Kevorkian. I will personally miss him. I am personally grateful to have known such a great man." Conveniently (or perhaps not so conveniently) Feiger assumes that the final chapter of history will be written by self-congratulatory Death-with-Dignity liberals, rather than by His Lord and Maker at the Final Tribunal.
In a video linked in the last paragraph, Kevorkian is interviewed by a reporter whom he drives around in his little electric car, waxing philosophical. One catches bits of Nietzsche: people "make up this stuff" about heaven and hell because "it makes them feel good. THEY'RE WEAK!" And, when asked what HE believes, bits of Skepticism: "How should I know?" -- as well as bits of Silenus: "I wish I had never been born." He adds: "Who needs this ... going to jail..." Silenus, of course, was the Greek mythological figure cited in Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, who declared that "the best thing for a man is not to be born, and if already born, to die as soon as possible."
Well, it might be tempting to say that Dr. Death has finally gotten his wish. But that wouldn't be quite accurate. There must be one very surprised Dr. Jack Kevorkian at the moment. One wonders what he would tell Geoffrey Feiger if he had the chance now.
8 comments:
His name is Kevorkian, not Death.
His name is Kevorkian AND, in the mainstream media and popular culture, "Dr. Death." And, as widely recognized, quite rightly so: nobody embraced the "Culture of Death" with such vehemence and (sometimes) glee as Dr. "Death" Kevorkian.
And now he knows even as he is known. May God have mercy on him.
Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescat in pace.
He is the avatar of the coming American health system, even if Obama's ideas are never put into practice.
Anonymous,
I hope you're willing to wish the same for father and son George Bush (Sr. and Jr.) when they die.
Anonymous II, the prayer offered by Anonymous used "eis," the plural, rather than "ei," the singular and was, consequently, a prayer for the dead in general--"them" rather than "him."
Were the Bush boys dead, they would have been included in the part about rest and light.
"Requiescat," however, is singular. So, peace is asked for only one.
But why can't Anonymous just pray for the guy without agreeing with him? Surely, the Doctor would seem to need them if anyone does.
Nihil de mortuis nisi bonum.
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