A Case Of Assisted Suicide By Jack Kevorkian

Pt is a 12 y/o African American female presented at NNBHC with dx of ADHD combine type, ODD, Disruptive Mood Dysregulation D/O, Mood D/O, PTSD and Sexual Abuse (victim/ perpetrator), who have been feeling severely depressed and SI. Pt states that she has had SI with a plan to overdose or cut her wrist. Pt is considered high risk due her unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide on 7/5/2015 by taking a handful (unknown quantity) of Clonidine. She was hospitalized at CHKD until she was medially stable, than transferred to Maryview for mental stabilization. Pt states that she is unable to contract for safety at this time, and unsure of what she may do due to her impulsivity. Pt has also have been currently distributing nude pictures to adult males via cell phone. Virginia Beach Police Department is involved with the solicition of child pornography per report from pt mother. Pt have been using explicit communication of sexual acts via text message with males and females. Since 7/5/15 there have been a change in medication Vyvanse 70mg to 30mg. Pt have a hx of becoming verbally aggressive towards hospital staff when medications change. Pt denies any psychosis or paranoid thinking.

Kervorkian’s background was one that was very interesting and many people still, to this day, question his works. He was born in Pontiac, Michigan on May 26, 1928

Patient presented to the ED via EMS after a attempted suicide by driving his car into a tree. Patient reports braking up with his girlfriend a month ago and experiencing depressive symptoms. He reports that his girlfriend and him had a 7 year relationship, which he shared a with a 6 year old daughter from the relationship. Patient expresses that in the past he has been verbal aggressive towards her and she has recently moved into er mothers home. The patient reports since her leaving he has been having suicidal thought. He reports that he never attempted suicide, however has had a history of depression and a verbally abusive father. The patient express a poor appetite, sleep, and loss in usual pleasure, which is praying for change in his relationship.

Jack Kevorkian, or Doctor Death, was notoriously known for facilitating a suicide machine to patients who sought to end their lives but were not able to do so without assistance. In 1968 Kevorkian wrote, “‘It’s time for a society obsessed with planned birth to consider diverting some of its attention and energy from an overriding concern with longevity of life at all costs, to the snowballing need for a rational stance on planned death’” (Kevorkian, 2011, p. 1). He was careful not to practice active euthanasia, which would mean actively injecting patients with a lethal dose. This would lead to Kevorkian being charged with murder. Instead, he assisted terminally ill patients in committing suicide by providing them with the means to carry out their plans. The first means included delivering carbon monoxide via a mask that would lead to hypoxia, or deceased oxygen getting to the tissues, which

his assistance in the deaths of more than a hundred patients. Dr. Kevorkian took the Hippocratic

I watched Emily a 24 year old girl who says she battles a monster inside that make her cause self-harm and cutting herself. She went through a series of doctors before the decision was made to get euthanized her mom wasn’t too fond of the decision but now she see the pain her daughter goes through she said she going to go through it with her daughter establish a support . We all have dark moments and desperate measure to make them go away but sometimes the pain is incomparable. Jack Kevorkian has become a well-known advocate for physician assisted suicide he has helped over 130 people will ill illness kill themselves between 1990 and 1999 not many people agree with him because they think since he worked in the medicine field its very inappropriate

Despite Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s intent to get people talking about the right to die movement, many people “think the attention he drew was negative” (Preface p.6). It was thought by some that Jack Kevorkian had an unhealthy and concerning fascination with death and that his mission to help people die was unethical. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan said, "The enthusiasm he brought to his cause was always deeply troubling. No doubts ever seemed to cross his mind as he dispatched his victims. The fact that he helped some to die within hours of meeting them, the fact that he would turn a disabled man's death into a national spectacle by giving a tape of his murder to 60 Minutes [makes] him morally suspect then and hardly worth hearing from now” (Preface

Have you ever heard of the nickname Dr.Death? This was given to a man known only as Dr.Jack Kevorkian. He was a physician who assisted people commit suicide known as euthanasia. He participated in 130 suicides of terminally ill people. A Physician, has the right to assist a terminally ill patient in their quest to die

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired doctor, assists terminally ill patients in Committing suicide. Dr. Kevorkian strongly believes that physicians should be able to help terminally ill adults end their lives With self-respect, and his goal is to make assisted Suicide legal.

Physicians face an ethical dilemma when confronting their patients who are suffering. Many have to choose between abiding by the law or ignoring the law and acting on their own beliefs by assisting in a patient’s suicide. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is certainly one doctor who has taken the illegal route in assisting in many of his patients suicides. In “Killer Doc,” William F. Buckley provides a brief overview of the case and informs his audience of the shocking incidents of Kevorkian’s performed euthanasia on Thomas Youk. In “Offering a Helping Hand to those Who Long to Die,” Mark Nichols compares the famous euthanasia doctors, Dr. Kevorkian and Austrailia’s Dr. Philip Nitschke.

The constitution states that people have the right to live or die but it does not say that doctors have to assist them in the process. People do have the right to choose if they want to end their life or not but they should not have a doctor to do it for them because that makes it a lot easier for the person to just end their life. Therefore assisted suicide is not constitutionally protected.

The patient is a 34 year old female who presented to the ED with increase depressive symptoms and SI since medication changed last week. Denies suicidal plan and reports having back pain for 2 months due to passing of kidney stones as well as upper jaw pain from tooth being pulled last week. Patient denies HI or symptoms of psychosis.

Ethics has been a topic of much debate recently. Unlike laws, ethics is based on personal opinion and what a person has been taught. As we have seen in the news lately, ethical issues are never black and white, ethics is more of a fine line: a grey area where no politician likes to speak. This is not confined to any country, issues like abortion or euthanization are causing disputes that are not easily resolved.

The concept of assisted suicide is one that is extremely hard to decipher between what is truly right and wrong. Assisted suicide is when a person with an incurable disease, who most of the time is given a certain amount of time they are expected to live, is guided or instructed by a physician, so they can comfortably and easily commit suicide. At least, easier than it would be for a patient to do it all on his or her own. Sometimes the physician can provide what is needed for the patient to commit suicide such as lethal drugs. I can see how this could be argued for and against, which is why there are also legal issues as to whether this should have a law against it or one stating that it is legal. I am choosing to discuss why I am against this, because this topic can be looked at from either side but I feel as if the cons outweigh the pros. Personally, I believe that life is valuable and shouldn 't purposefully be ended by the physician or the patient. Physicians also take an oath to try and preserve human life to the best of their abilities and to not do any harm to any patients. Doctors never have all the answers, sometimes their prognoses are not always correct. If more people use assistance for suicide, I believe that it will make it more common and accessible to people who don 't have a real reason to consider it.

Assisted suicide is possibly one of the most controversial topics. People believe that it truly does help and others think that it 's one of the worst things to do, not just to yourself but the people that actually care about you. Nearly 30,000 Americans commit suicide every year. On an average one American will have killed themselves in every 16.2 minutes. Each suicide intimately affects 6 people. They’re many reasons why someone would want to kill themselves. Some may be mentally insane, some may just want to give up because they are going through a tough time, and others may want to because they are hurting so much they feel like that would be the only way to get better.