Precedent Set Is A Real Killer Keep Death Private Video Was Crafted To Promote Killing.

Fri., Nov. 27, 1998

John Webster Opinion Editor

Freedom would not last long in a society without restraint or accountability, without respect for human dignity, privacy and life. Moral self-restraint protects the weak from the strong, protects both freedom and civilization from dissolving into violence.

Even the news media, believe it or not, exercise restraint. Editors frequently argue and agonize about where to draw the lines between privacy and exploitation, between the glamorization of evil and the necessary reporting of evildoing. We regularly withhold material that offends our standards. But those standards are eroding.

After all, we are part of a society that has been casting off one moral restraint after another for 30 years.

Last Sunday night, CBS television abandoned one of the last protections of human dignity and privacy. “60 Minutes” broadcast a video in which Dr. Jack Kevorkian killed a man. Calmly, Kevorkian injected lethal drugs into the man’s veins, watched him die and defied authorities to arrest him.

This was different from the uncountable millions of violent deaths with which television and movies have entertained and desensitized us. This death was real. And yet, as in so many instances when electronic media pass along their sound bites and video clips, this precedent-setting segment was a distortion. “60 Minutes” is a blend of news, entertainment and propaganda. This segment was propaganda, for Kevorkian’s crusade to legalize euthanasia. Weary of disease? Let Dr. Jack kill you. Watch: It’s cheap. It’s easy. It’s painless.

It’s also a threat to everyone who is old or ill. According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, even the disease from which Kevorkian’s victim suffered is yielding to improving pain-relief treatments. However, with insurance companies already limiting many treatments for financial reasons, once society crosses the bridge to euthanasia we will be only a few steps away from killing the old, the ill and the suffering without their consent.

This video was a distortion that should not have aired - not just because of what it showed but because of what it could not show. A camera can show hatchets, bullets and Kevorkian’s needle. It cannot show life leaving a body. This was so peaceful, we might say. What’s the big deal? Why not euthanize people?

Why not? Because once we abandon this final restraint, there will be no stopping us and no one will be safe.

Local journalism is essential.

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