Another coincidence. The news that scientists might not need to destroy embryos to create cures overlapped with the release of a slick YouTube video arguing that they are essential. Jerry Zucker, the director of My Best Friend’s Wedding, Naked Gun, and Airplane, has produced a video in a guerilla marketing campaign to undermine the Bush restrictions. It depicts two fertility clinic workers arguing with a heartless and brainless President Bush.

KEVORKIAN EXPLAINS HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

It’s hard to know why Jack Kevorkian, the paroled Michigan doctor who has helped 130 people to die, agreed to be interviewed by the author of Tuesdays with Morrie, which may be the most persuasive anti-euthanasia book ever written. But he did — and the result was exactly as one would expect.

The Kevordian charm offensive failed on Mitch Albom, a well-known columnist for the Detroit Free Press: “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 the highlights:

“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. Is there a meaning to our lives? I asked. ‘No,’ he said. Was he happy? ‘I don’t expect the object of life is happiness. That’s why I’m happy.’ Set the bar low, in other words? ‘That’s the way to go,’ he said.”

Nonetheless, Kevorkian has his fans. The University of Florida has offered him US$50,000 to give a lecture.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)

• How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
• House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
• Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021