He is 79 now.

He has served over 8 years of his 10 year sentence.

I have thought of him often and I am so glad he is getting out.

edie

Btw, I hope you're feeling fine again.

I am feeling wonderfully now. A couple of weekends ago? Not so much. WAY not so much.

Sounded like a truly horrific experience. I couldn't believe how many others chimed in and said they'd had the same thing. I'd never heard of it.

Btw, do you know what's happened to TOM?

Last I heard, he was taking time off to be with his wife. I'm hoping that that's all it is, and that something didn't happen to him. I think he hasn't been on since sometime in February or so. I really am starting to worry, though.

Sounded like a truly horrific experience. I couldn't believe how many others chimed in and said they'd had the same thing. I'd never heard of it.

It was absolutely the worst thing I've ever gone through. I'd had small ingrown hair abcesses (maybe dime-sized, at most) there before, but nothing like what I had this time. It's something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. And I'm being completely honest there, not facetious.

Dr K took no lives. He helped people end their lives with dignity. He was never the one who decided when they would die. They made that decision for themselves.

When my father was dying (pancreatic cancer) he begged me to bring him a gun. Can you imagine how hard that was for me?

If he ended peoples lives with dignity then why didnt those people have living wills or make legal arrangements such as a DNR or other legal means of ending there own lives? Dr Kevorkian murdered those people and should still be in jail. My stepfather was in a terrible sudden horrific car crash that left him brain dead. HE had already made prior arrangements in writing to have himself disconnected from life support. This saved the family a tremendous amount of grief and heartache at having to make that decison ourselves. It would seem to me that if someone knows they are terminal the best gift they could give their families is to insure legally and in writing their last wishes. The medical field has ways that a person can die legally and with dignity and with very little pain. There life does not have to taken from them.

If he ended peoples lives with dignity then why didnt those people have living wills or make legal arrangements such as a DNR or other legal means of ending there own lives? Dr Kevorkian murdered those people and should still be in jail. My stepfather was in a terrible sudden horrific car crash that left him brain dead. HE had already made prior arrangements in writing to have himself disconnected from life support. This saved the family a tremendous amount of grief and heartache at having to make that decison ourselves. It would seem to me that if someone knows they are terminal the best gift they could give their families is to insure legally and in writing their last wishes. The medical field has ways that a person can die legally and with dignity and with very little pain. There life does not have to taken from them.

The reason that many people don't make living wills is for the same reason that they don't get around to making any other provision for their deaths, they are involved in living their lives and are, perhaps, afraid to acknowledge that death will inevitably come. I did not get around to writing about a formal will until my mother died two years ago. I was in my mid-fifties. I now have a living will as well as the formal papers which say where the cash will go. My brother, a doctor and a guy who is almost as old as I am, was still dawdling on doing his will the last I heard. You don't have to be stupid to be disorganized and careless. When people such as myself or my brother, and there are many of us, suddenly find ourselves terminal and in dreadful pain we may well be greatful for someone to help us pull the plug. Dr. Kervorkian did not murder anyone as far as I am aware. He assisted some people do what they wanted done is all. There are conditions under which life ceases to be valuable for the individual who is living it and extinction becomes the kinder and more logical choice.

Dr. K did not "pull the plug" on people. He made the materials available for the patient to do the deed themselves, hence the assisted.

He would hook them up to a device that would administer the drugs that would kill them. The person had to push the button on the device themselves to administer the drugs. The person is the one who ended their own life.

The reason he went to jail was for administering an injection himself to a patient that was terminally ill. It was allegely the only time he had done so himself.

I said "help us pull us the plug" when and if we need this assistance. Dr. K provided a useful and generous service for those people who had requested his assistance.

tink: you obviously didn't read my post from last night. My dad had a living will and a DNR. His doctor refused to allow him to die. His doctor was one of those doctors who after saving so many lives, decided that HE was God. I wish I could describe exactly what all they did to my dad just so his doctor wouldn't have to face the fact that his surgical procedure caused my dad's death. That louse kept my dad on life support, with no possibility of recovery, for an entire month. It was horribly gruesome and extremely painful for my father, like torture.

P.S. The reason I can't describe what all they did to him is because I just don't have the stomache for it. Get off Dr. Kevorkian's case. You obviously do not know what you're talking about.

What really gets me is that so many people that apparently believe in God and all his powers also think that it is horrible to remove someone from life support, that it's murder. Don't they understand that their God wanted them to die? God isn't the one keeping their loved one alive.

You know Laurend, I am baffled by this as well. I have had some family members die horrible deaths and I can't imagine wishing that on anyone.

When I was getting my final paperwork completed before surgery, I had to sign a paper with instructions for my family if something was to go wrong. I put my wishes on paper as well as instructing my family that if there is no way I would want to exist (you can't call it living) on life support. Let me die in peace. While my mother struggled with it, she respects my decision and agreed to not stand in dh's way. Dh and I are in total agreement on it. We both feel it is better to let them go then to remain here with no quality of life and often times in severe pain. That is purely selfish.

You know Laurend, I am baffled by this as well. I have had some family members die horrible deaths and I can't imagine wishing that on anyone.

When I was getting my final paperwork completed before surgery, I had to sign a paper with instructions for my family if something was to go wrong. I put my wishes on paper as well as instructing my family that if there is no way I would want to exist (you can't call it living) on life support. Let me die in peace. While my mother struggled with it, she respects my decision and agreed to not stand in dh's way. Dh and I are in total agreement on it. We both feel it is better to let them go then to remain here with no quality of life and often times in severe pain. That is purely selfish.

It really, truly is. Keeping someone around for years on life support isn't thinking of them, it's thinking of yourself. If people were really concerned about the quality of life of their loved ones, they'd let them go. I just don't understand why a pet owner can put their pet out of its misery when it gets to a point where there is no quality of life left, yet people can't make that decision for themselves.

And Denise, I just noticed your ticker! You've done so well, losing over a hundred pounds in 8 months! That's definitely good work.

I cannot understand this desire to artificially sustain life through keeping people hooked up to life support. To do this strikes me as being disrespectful to the once sentient life who is now tethered to a collection of machines and as being wasteful of resources, both medical and environmental.

My mum spent the day when she should have been attending the first wedding of a grandchild by her only sister's bedside. It was my mother who pulled the plug.

And Denise, I just noticed your ticker! You've done so well, losing over a hundred pounds in 8 months! That's definitely good work.

Thank you! :biggrin1: I have really worked hard at this and am very pleased with my progress thus far. In no time at all you will be banded and rocking away! How exciting!!