Kevorkian released; poll supports cause

As Dr. Jack Kevorkian was released Friday from a Michigan prison after serving eight years for second-degree murder in the assisted death of a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease, new polls suggest his cause retains strong support.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released this week showed that 53 percent of Americans believe Kevorkian never should have gone to jail for the assisted suicide campaign he championed in the 1990s.

Just 30 percent of the 1,000 adults questioned agreed that doctors and nurses should do everything possible to save the life of a patient. More than two-thirds said there are circumstances where a patient should be allowed to die with help.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points and was conducted from interviews done between May 22 and May 24.

Religion had much to do with people’s answers. Only about one-third of those who attend religious services at least once a week said it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. In contrast, 70 percent of those who never attend religious services say doctor-assisted suicide should be legal.

A plurality, 48 percent, said the law should not bar doctors from helping terminally ill patients end their own lives by giving them a prescription for lethal drugs; 44 percent said it should be illegal.

When asked if they would consider ending their own lives if ill with a terminal disease, 55 percent said no.

A Gallup Poll taken earlier this month yielded similar answers on the question of assisted suicide. A majority, 56 percent, of 1,003 adults nationally said doctors should be allowed to legally assist a suffering, terminally ill patient in his or her death if the patient requests it; 49 percent of those surveyed said doctor-assisted suicide is morally acceptable.

Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said the church fought Kevorkian’s campaign and would continue to do so.

“For 10 years, Jack Kevorkian’s actions resembled those of a pathological serial killer,” he said. “It will be truly regrettable if he’s now treated as a celebrity parolee instead of the convicted murderer he is.”