There are six stages in the life of a human: infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, maturity and old age. In each there are lessons to be learned, with some being easy and others difficult. However, in the last stage, old age, the topic of death takes precedence. Here death itself becomes a teacher, and the lessons are harsh.
Doctors of Death
Dr. Jacob ‘Jack’ Kevorkian, nicknamed Doctor Death, died at the age of 83 from natural causes on June 3, 2011. But his interest in death began well before old age. In 1958, as a young man he attended the University of Michigan medical school and, as reported in The Economist, “there…he first proposed that condemned prisoners should, with their permission, be executed under anesthesia to enable doctors to experiment on their bodies, before going on to harvest their organs and use them for research.” Years later, as the same article also points out, his theory on assisted suicide was covered in the German journal, Medicine and Law. As reported by Life.org, in a 1968 article in this same journal, he “praised Nazi doctors for trying to get some good out of concentration camp deaths by conducting medical experiments.”
His death took my mind back to my wife’s two-week stint in ICU after surgery for Crohn’s disease. It was a reality check. While I’m in the sixth stage of life, the questions of death had seldom been discussed even though I’d been at the bedside of the dying. As I watched my wife hover between life and death, however, an eye-opening reality emerged: one of the ICU nurses, in conjunction with her nursing role, was also part of the human organ procurement and exchange program (HOPE); in fact, she’d just returned from accompanying a live organ to Montreal.
After learning this, I began to wonder about the possible conflict of interest- to save lives versus collect organs and tissues—of a nurse simultaneously performing these two duties. I’ve later learned that the long-term (+28 days) ICU survival rate in hospitals is not overly high; according to Critical Care forums, on average it is approximately 54%—dependent, of course, on age and the underlying disease—which is lower than I’d have expected.
Jack Kevorkian’s death also reminded me of a leather-bound four-volume work I own entitled Doctors of Death by Philippe Aziz, given to me years ago. In the series, the author examined the careers of Karl Brandt (Hitler’s top medical authority), Josef Mengele and other Nazi doctors. It also discussed the numerous pseudo scientific and murderous programs operated by the Nazi medical establishment, and the Medical Case at Nuremberg after the war. A reread of these books not only struck home the finality of death but the lessons from death that have been sought by the medical community for some time.
Criminality
As explained in Volume 1, Philippe Aziz visited and interviewed an old doctor in Itsohoe, outside of Hamburg Germany in November of 1972. The doctor had been a fellow-student and friend of Karl Brandt, and now, a generation after his death on June 1, 1948, was willing to speak. Ironically, as chronicled in Doctors of Death, at Brandt’s trial, the Nuremberg Prosecutor stated that “Karl Brandt knew nothing about the experiments…” Jack Kevorkian, however, convicted of murder in March of 1999, not only knew but actively sought publicity for his causes of assisted suicide and medical experimentation.
Euthanasia
As quoted in Doctors of Death, Hitler, in Mein Kampf proclaimed: “A stronger generation will eliminate the weak.” So, while euthanasia was formally censured in Germany in 1935, unbeknown to the German public, Hitler decreed exterminations of the insane in 1939. In court, Brandt stated that “I am certain that today those people (relatives) have overcome their grief and that they themselves have the feeling that their dead relatives were delivered from suffering…”
All those years ago, Brandt believed in the principle that “human beings who can no longer care for themselves, and whose life is an agony, must be helped.” Today, only Holland, Belgium, Colombia, the state of Hesse in Germany, and the state of Oregon in the USA have actual euthanasia laws; but Christian Life Resources’ list of Euthanasia policies worldwide indicates many lawmakers are calling for it.
Medical Experiments
As reported by Life.org, in 1956 Jack Kevorkian “visited death row prisoners at the Ohio State Penitentiary, wanting their reaction to his idea of doing medical experiments at their executions,” not unlike the experiments cataloged by the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s MLC Online.
Philippe Aziz is listed on the MLC’s bibliography of medical experimentation in World War II. In line with the premise that experimentation went on behind the scenes, Aziz reported on the 1947 manifesto in the name of all German doctors: “We regret the shameful acts of German doctors which have brought suffering to the helpless victims of the German dictatorship, and which have horrified the whole world.” Aziz also added his own opinion: “The German nation was not the first and only one to carry out such criminal medical experiments.” He went on to cite the malaria experiments conducted in penal institutions in the USA as reported in the June 4, 1945 edition of Life magazine.
The US National Institute of Health’s Office of Human Subject Research, reported on the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki as updated in Tokyo in 2004. Some key elements included:
- Medical progress is based on research which ultimately must rest in part on experimentation involving human subjects.
- In medical research on human subjects, considerations related to the well-being of the human subject should (not must) take precedence over the interests of science and society.
- The particular needs of the economically and medically disadvantaged must be recognized.
My advice…? Remember that decisions made about the sick and the dying are often harsh. Learn these lessons:
- don't be naive
- advocate for yourself or have someone you trust do it: look at medical charts and ask questions
- know your rights
- stay healthy
Sources:
- Jack Kevorkian. The Economist. June 9, 2011.
- Philippe Aziz. Doctors of Death. Ferni Publishers. Geneva, 1976
- Wolfgang H Hart et al. Acute and long-term survival in chronically critically ill surgical patients: a retrospective observational study. Critical Care. 2007
- Jack Kevorkian Life.org
- Euthanasia Policies Worldwide. Christian Life Resources
- Bibliography of Medical Experimentation. MLC Online
- Regulations and Ethical Guidelines. US National Institute of Health
James Gibson - James Gibson is a retired teacher and small business owner. He is a published writer and has a wide spectrum of interests.
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