Columnist Meets the “Real” Jack Kevorkian

Mitch Albom, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press interviewed Kevorkian face-to-face, and apparently was taken aback by what he experienced. After a little time with Kevorkian, Albom writes, “I couldn’t imagine a suffering so bad that I would want Kevorkian to be the last person I’d see on Earth.” Here are a few other key moments from his column:

As we spoke, I heard intelligence, self-assurance, even arrogance. What I didn’t hear was humanity. He didn’t seem to think much of the human race. He likened life to “a tragedy.” He quoted famous people saying they wouldn’t bring babies into this world. When I said that would wipe out mankind, he said, “What’s wrong with that?”

I began to sense a man who was more interested in death than life. Death was his academic passion, and sick patients were part of that academic pursuit, like lab rats…

I don’t know what’s the way to go. But after an hour, I knew I wouldn’t want to go via Jack Kevorkian, a man for whom the world is bleak, happiness is rare, belief is a waste of time and life is a finite, meaningless entity. The act he champions may indeed be one of compassion, but how can it be delivered by such a cold, cold heart?

A lot of people continue to cling to the idea of euthanasia as “compassion.” But it isn’t, or, at least, it certainly wasn’t for Kevorkian. The root meaning of that word is to “suffer with.” Kevorkian just discarded people.