European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes Ellen Goodman 1 a today a quandary life death and Medicine Boston a on june 4, Janet Adkins a woman in fear of losing her mind to alzheimer a disease travelled to Michigan for a Back Alley suicide. The doctor that she found to expedite her wish was Jack Kevorkian an . And a Maverick that word we use to describe both crusaders and Loose cannons. Or. Kevorkian drove his vehicle his suicide Mobile his Welcome to death Wagon to a Park in Oakland county North of Detroit. There in the Back of the Van the doctor hooked up his patient to a machine. After saying thank you we Are told Janet Adkins 54, Lover of music and Mountain climbing pushed a Button that released a lethal drug into her body. In the Days since that fateful fatal encounter mrs. Adkins has been eulogized by her minister As a a Pioneer in the Battle for death with or. Kevorkian has been both lionized and vilified As he makes his Way through the headlines and the talk shows daring the authorities to turn the Maverick into a Martyr a if its Legal let me do it. If its illegal Stop and in these same Days questions of life and death a what kind of life what kind of death a have been raised in the Public consciousness with a new scenario attached to them. In some ways or. Kevorkian is too easy a target for this discussion. With a ghoulish passion the retired pathologist and self described a or death doctor has advocated everything from experimentation on death Row inmates to a Chain of nonprofit suicide clinics. Quot my motto is a he says a a a a rational policy of planned a from All accounts or. Kevorkian was in no position to judge mrs. Adkins illness the extent of her depression to offer counselling or alternatives. It is impossible to justify the role played by a stranger physician a one eager for a test Case a in providing the weapon for suicide. But in some ways the attention to or. Kevorkian a personality begs the Central questions about life and death and Medicine. I believe that there is such a thing As rational suicide if a person is old enough or ill enough. The hard part is defining when or. Bruno Bettel he Imp a ended his life some weeks ago it seemed to me that he deserved moral permission for his act. The stories about Janet Adkins Are less Clear. Alzheimer a diagnosed a year ago had robbed her of her music and pockets of her memory. By some standards she Wasny to far gone enough to give up on life. But its fair to suggest that it Wasny to just her sense of loss but her Bleak vision of the future that caused this preemptive strike against the debilitating Quindlen m suicide machine. The optional accessory. Or. Kevorkian says that mrs. Adkins had asked her doctor what he would recommend for her when she was finally in a vegetative state. The doctor according to Kevorkian said he would Tell her husband to shoot her. If that is True he offered nothing. She could exercise her will now or lose it. The Bleak future Janet Adkins faced is one that other elderly and ill recognize. Most of us have the desire to live As Long As our minds Are working. But at precisely the moment we might choose to die we May have lost the capacity to make that Choice. How Many suicide pacts and acts Are based on that fear the desire to control death May be a Modem conceit a kind of hubris against nature. But it is one based on Modem technology. The terrifying Specter of our age is a body attached interminably to a machine. The terrifying Specter is a doctor who wont let us die wont let us decide. Janet Adkins death landed in the news just As ethic its and doctors await the supreme court decision about Nancy Cruzan the 32-year-old who has been in a permanent vegetative state for More than seven years. They Are waiting to hear if the court will allow a family to remove a feeding tube. There Are some who believe that the Slippery slope leads directly from Nancy Cruzana a Hospital bed to or. Kevorkian a death on wheels. If we remove a feeding tube soon we will have the Chain of suicide clinics. But i suspect that just the opposite is True. It is the fear of ending up a a vegetables that drives Many to extremes. Its the terror of the life support machine that makes the suicide machine an attractive alternative. There May always be rational suicides always be cases in which a doctors moral obligation to ease pain and suffering supersedes the demand to prolong life. But if we can be confident of humane treatment if we can retain a measure of control Over our lives even at their end there will be few suicide seekers in the Back alleys of Medicine. And Jack Kevorkian May be remembered As a Maverick without a cause. C the Boston Globe newspaper company its them is. Us in controversy Over Flag burning for As Long As i can remember there has been a mean spirited proposal to Settle the problems new York City presents for the rest of the country. It is this Loose the Island of Manhattan from its moorings and let it float out to sea. Goodbye dirt noise crack Deal cars Street paddlers fast talkers big spenders. Its this fantasy that comes to mind when i think of Flag buying the most recent in a series of ideological red Herrings designed to give politicians time off from doing their jobs. The uproar following the supreme court decision protecting Flag burning As a form of free expression a the jingoistic speeches the Call for a constitutional amendment a has nothing to do with burning the Flag. Very few of us know anyone who Burns flags. One of my sons produced a horrible construction paper rendition for the Flag Day Parade at Day Camp but i assume the mangling of the stars and stripes had More to do with motor coordination than patriotism. Flag burning is a question of us is. Them a test of who gets to stay on the mind set Mainland and who should be sent out to sea. This is a great National pastime particularly since George Stein Brenner fouled up the other one. There Are people who insist they take some sort of Middle ground but no one believes them and they Are rarely invited to dinner parties. In this Comer Are those who believe Flag buyers should be punished. If they Are them a is this parsing a then us believe they Are also in favor of Law and order execution and abstinence mandatory drug testing and an end to affirmative action. Them think us Are licentious proponents of sex education who created the welfare state and use drugs. Us stand up for 2 live Crew and Robert Mapplethorpe even if we have never heard the music or seen the pictures. Them think America has gone soft on censorship. Those who step outside the grab bag Are viewed with suspicion. Show me a Republican feminist who supports government funded birth control clinics but opposes Legal abortion and ill show you a person with a lot of explaining to do. We like things All of one piece. Last week in lower Manhattan a Man in a red White and Blue top hat was Selling miniature flags and carrying a sign that read a protect old glory and the the same Day i got a letter from someone disgusted with my support of what them always Call a the homosexual the letter ended a i assume you support gun there you go. I had to laugh when one opponent of Flag burning in weighed against a drug crazed break out the tie dyes us would say with More than a hint of sarcasm. But it is Worth invoking the 60s Here since it is thought that us is. Them was invented then. I View this with suspicion since there seems to be a growing body of historical a at everything was invented in the 60s, particularly sex and drugs. But perhaps us is. Them was Best codified in sly eans a make love not War and America love it or leave the divisions still focus on politics and sex. Since the political climate has made it impossible to think of people As communists unless they have to stand in line for hours to buy turnips the political piece is couched in More moderate terms Liberal conservative. The sex part is simple too if them Are for it in marriage missionary style us like it every other Way. Although it is Clear Here that i am an us i do not mean to suggest that one Side is better about this nonsense than the other. I tend to get the letters from those convinced that if i oppose capital punishment it follows As the night the Day that i am divorced a Democrat Ana a bad Mother. But i am confident that my conservative colleagues receive similar letters the ones that say they Are White male fascists who Are in the service of the Pope and Wear string ties. Inevitably someone will suggest that j am making Light of burning the Flag Ana that men lost their lives to protect it. By All of us a and them too in their hearts a know that nobody died to protect a piece of fabric. They were defending a Way of life Ana this is it a country Tough enough to Cany on a civil War every Day of the year a Vaci fists. Interventionists. Republicans. Democrats. Whigs. Tories. Us. Them. Long May we wave. C new York times
