Window Quarterly
Vol. 3, No. 3 & 4, 1993
Copyright 1993

[Permission is granted to use, print, reproduce this article 
provided the following acknowledgment is given:  From 
Window Quarterly 3, 3/4 (1993); ACRAG c. 1993. 

***

DEATH: ONE MORE PAIN TO AVOID?

by Fr. Vazken Movsesian

When we first decided to focus this issue of Window on 
death, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was still causing people to pause 
from their fast paced lives and contemplate their own 
mortality. By now, Kevorkian is dismissed as merely a doctor 
unfaithful to his calling, carrying the misleading title "Doctor 
Death." He continues to buck the system, defying court 
orders and accepting jail sentences.  Every now and then his 
name finds a spot in the Armenian Church bulletins and 
pulpits by priests more captured by his being Armenian, than 
the ethical dilemma he may present. 
	
Kevorkian is a rebel and as such is a working man's hero.  He 
is a genuine person, evaluating problems of life and death in 
a down-to-earth manner.  If someone is dying without any 
hope of recovery, why add to the terrible hand that life has 
dealt him?  Why not assist and make his exit from this life as 
quick and painless as possible?  What could be more 
practical?  Wouldn't it be nice if every problem in life could 
have such a pragmatic solution?
	
The dilemma which Kevorkian has brought to the limelight 
intrigues our society -- a society which places all its eggs in 
one basket.  Material wealth and the belief in the finality of 
our temporal existence defines our understanding of life.  
Kevorkian rocks the shaky foundation which society has 
built.  The ramifications of Kevorkian's challenge to societal 
ethics is inescapable, especially for us in the Church.
	
After reading Kevorkian's book, Prescription Medicine: The 
Goodness of Planned Death, it becomes obvious that the title 
"Dr. Death" is only a ploy by the media to sensationalize a 
society which is scared to deal with ultimate questions.  Dr. 
Kevorkian is no more an advocate of death than Mother 
Teresa.  What differentiates Kevorkian from all the rest is his 
willingness to apply intellect and reason to a very important 
issue facing society today -- the boundaries of and control 
over life and death.

Death and Society

"...The chief duty of the state [is]  to protect the individual 
and give him the opportunity to develop into a creative 
personality; that is to say; the state should be our servant and 
not we its slaves."  --Albert Einstein

The first time I received a letter from Armenia, I was amused 
at the way the address had been written.  It had "USA" at the 
top, followed by my state, city, street address and at the very 
bottom was my name.  It was the opposite of the way we 
address envelopes here in the U.S. -- with the person's name 
at the top, followed by his location in the world. It may be 
merely a matter of custom, but it does reflect the 
understanding of a self-conscious society.  For much of the 
world, the state is what comes before all else.  The state is 
greater than all else and is there to be served.  However, in 
America (and the Western world), the self has been allowed 
to supersede all else.  Though this ideal may not be 
achievable, the state is there to serve the person.
	
In the hierarchy of life, we have put our personal existence 
above all else.  Advances in the field of medicine are steadily 
stretching life expectancy years.  Add to this the doctor's fear 
of malpractice litigation and you have a unique system -- 
where every and all measures may be taken to preserve a 
person's physical existence --  despite the quality of life that 
treatment may render.  The primordial question of life and its 
meaning follow when the quality of life issue is brought to 
focus.  What is the value of existence without purpose or 
plan? What is existence without a measure of quality?
	
With subjective references as "quality," the definition and 
meaning of life becomes a confusing mishmash of 
capitalistic and humanistic idealism.  The popular slogan, In 
the end, he who dies with the most toys, wins!  characterizes 
a society where material wealth and accumulation of goods 
define the quality of life. 
	
Modern medicine is opening a Pandora's box every day. The 
longer life expectancy is stretched, the more chances a 
person has to see the next generation of illness and disease.  
In Prescription Medicine, Kevorkian addresses issues that are 
paramount to our ability to control, regulate and limit life.  
For the ethicist, these are questions which are evaluated in 
relation to the norms of society.  For the theologian, these are 
concerns which are tested against an understanding of a 
supernatural force -- the author of life -- and therefore the 
only legitimate "regulator" of life.

"Prescription Medicine" 
	
Society has already made a decision on which life is 
insignificant by virtue of its capital punishment laws, 
contends Kevorkian.  Prescription Medicine expounds his 
idea of "judicial euthanasia."  The book begins by portraying 
a handful of individuals with life threatening diseases and the 
possibility for survival, provided they can obtain a donated 
organ. Simultaneously, Kevorkian details a state sanctioned 
execution: when a criminal is executed by the state, "an 
abstraction called justice [is] served...."  At the same time a 
greater sentence is handed down to those suffering from 
illness.  By the extermination of the criminal, a cure for the 
ails of another becomes impossible.
	
Kevorkian's premise is simple and rational.  Given the set of 
circumstances produced by society, we can find a more 
equitable way of "serving justice."  He explains, "Originally 
the word retribution meant compensation or something of 
value given in return.  How can the involuntary death of a 
criminal fit that definition?  What is returned to society or to 
anyone in it?  There can be no compensation from executions 
as traditionally understood; there can be only loss of life." 	
	
	
Criminals sitting on death row are a source for organ 
transplants as well as medical experimentation.  Kevorkian 
interviews a handful of these inmates and finds that they are 
willing to "pay their debt" to society in this manner.  What 
stops them, however, is the politics of medicine.  For one, the 
American Medical Association cannot sanction a doctor to 
play executioner.  The greater problem is faced by law 
makers who have to face voters on a record blotched with the 
word "murder."
	
Clearly, Kevorkian shows there is precedence for this type of 
planned execution.  He  dedicates Prescription Medicine "to 
those enlightened doctors in ancient Hellenistic Alexandria 
and Medieval Cilician Armenia. They dared to do what is 
right."  He explains, "Articles published recently in academic 
journals from Soviet Armenia... cited publications in the 
classical Armenian language from around 1350 to 1375 
describing the practice (medical experiments during 
execution of condemned criminals) then in vogue. They also 
tended to verify what I had guessed about Alexandria: 
experiments were performed there only after subjects were 
rendered insensitive with large amounts of alcohol.  Much of 
the Armenian research dealt with observation of organ 
structure and function, including circulation of the blood.  
This then represents the second and well-documented 
episode of man's homage to the nobler and usually ignored 
values inherent in the willful destruction of humans."
	
The benefits of this "judicial euthanasia" are great, 
Kevorkian contends. Cures for illness based on human 
experimentation and organ transplants are possible, but 
societal rules and regulations now stand in the way of 
progress.

Enter the Church
	
For the Church, the issues that are presented by Kevorkian's 
work can not go unnoticed.  And certainly, for the Armenian 
Church, Kevorkian must stand as a challenge to Her theology 
because of his work and not because of his ethnic 
background. (I often wonder, had he not been Armenian, 
would we in the Armenian Church have even picked up on 
this controversy. Everyday we are challenged with issues of 
euthanasia, capital punishment, suicide, abortion and our 
inhumanity to one another in war. Rarely, do I hear our 
Church make mention of these ethical dilemmas.)
	
For the Church, doctor assisted suicide cannot be approached 
vis-a-vis the political debate, nor does it necessarily have to 
be an ethical debate.  Life is precious, granted. We may 
certainly ask, who has the right to take that life away?  But 
we must also ask the question, who has the right to extend it?  
Because our theology discounts fatalism, (despite the 
popularity of the Middle Eastern custom of coffee cup 
reading), we accept a model of self-determination. 
	
The ramifications of self determination are many and can be 
debated endlessly. But the living Church must rise above 
mundane and lifeless philosophical discussions.  The Church 
has a statement to make and must be heard beyond the 
discussion of physical expiration. Today, the Church can 
speak in such a language that no other secular institution can 
speak and pronounce a message equally distinctive and 
unique.
	
The basic foundation of the Church is built upon the 
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There can be no concessions 
made on acceptance of this event by the "Christian." It is the 
premise of our Faith.  Therefore, physical death is no longer 
a mystery nor is it a pain to be avoided.  We cannot "treat" 
death as we do a disease.  It is a natural process through 
which every living entity must pass.  The Church is bound to 
witness to the message of the resurrection, which heralds, 
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your 
sting?" (1 Cor. 15:55) 
	
The "pain" of death is found only in the grieving of those 
who remain with memories of the deceased.  By the unfailing 
words of Christ, we are partakers in His resurrection. If not 
for Her witness to the Resurrection, the Church is but one 
voice among many in a controversy which began when Adam 
first questioned his existence and will continue to the end of 
time. 
	
In witnessing to the resurrection, the Church has a ministry in 
and through the event unparalleled in human history - 
Christ's Resurrection.  It is the strength by which we change 
the focus of death to life. In so doing, the message of the 
Church becomes one of life in light of death.  
	
Society is dying daily as it denies death and places the self 
above all else. It leads consumers in a futile search for a 
better look, a better feeling, a better life, all at the cost of 
one's spiritual demise.  As victims of societal pressure, our 
lives lose meaning and purpose, because our labors are in 
vain.  Death is seen as the ultimate evil, to be avoided at all 
costs, while life is defined by the expressions of what we 
taste, hear, smell, see and feel.
	
Society is overrun by self-centered idealism.  Quite the 
opposite, the Church teaches and challenges the individual to 
a life of sacrifice, even to the point of death, for the good of 
others.  The life of the Christian is one of love.  That love is 
expressed in giving.  Life is meant to be given as freely as it 
is given to us by God.  The idea that life is to be preserved at 
all costs is a foreign concept to the Church.  Without limits, 
life would not be faithful to its own definition. 	
	
In witnessing to the resurrection, the Church first and 
foremost must rise out of the grave Herself.  Death is a done 
deal.  It has been conquered.  It needs no apology.  The 
Church must be willing to address the issues of life.  The 
resurrection of Christ was not only an event in history, but 
also an event that happens every moment in a Christian's life.  
The spiritual death we face daily digs us deeper and deeper 
into a grave from which the Church must lift us up. The 
Church is not the mortician which pumps us with embalming 
fluid to simulate a life-like state,  rather She is the voice 
which echoes Christ's shout to Lazarus to "come forth" and 
live today! With the message of the resurrection, the walls of 
death crumble and we walk from darkness into light, from 
spiritual decay into spiritual revival.  
	
In his book The Courage to Be, theologian Paul Tillich 
describes the types of "anxiety," one of which is the "anxiety 
of guilt."  He explains, "Man's being, ontic as well as 
spiritual, is not only given to him but also demanded of him.  
He is responsible for it; literally, he is required to answer, if 
he is asked, what he has made of himself.  He who asks him 
is his judge, namely he himself, who, at the same time, 
stands against him."  We succumb to the anxiety of guilt, as 
our lives turn inward and decay in a battle to inflate the ego 
with surplus garbage.  We all fall victim to a spiritual 
demise. We need the hand that will pull us out of this grave 
and will allow us to believe that our efforts and labors are not 
in vain.  
	
The Church has this as Her mission. When the Church is 
defined as the Kingdom of God on Earth, what more is this 
than to allow Her children to share in God's love during their 
temporal existence.  The power of the Church is in her ability 
to talk to the lives of mortals here on Earth, with the 
authority and conviction of the Creator in Heaven, through 
the Holy Spirit.  Our deeds are judged by the self, evaluating 
itself.  The Church must move its emphasis away from a 
judgment yet to come to a judgment which is here today. In 
so doing, the Church's message of love overshadows and 
overcomes all discussion and concern for death. 
	
Death happens in the here and now. It is not to come, but an 
event from which we need to be saved today. Death is the 
end feared by those whose lives have been lived in vain. 
Lives lived in love and out of love do not die.   

***

Excerpts from Dr. Kevorkian's Book
	
"Even the various gods invented by humankind to help face 
the terrifying unknowns of existence are in favor of the 
ultimate penalty. They not only mandate it but they even pass 
the death sentence on capitally sinful mortals, and serve as its 
executioners. Yahweh and Allah have condemned and 
executed millions guilty of the capital crime of lacking faith. 
The true believers may have been the sword, but the gods 
were the executioners who wielded it. In fact, they are still 
swinging it wildly in Lebanon, Iran, Ireland and India."
	
"The 'pendulum' of capital punishment is unstoppable. Its use 
has fluctuated throughout recorded history, and there is not 
an interval of peacetime during which it completely 
disappeared. That is potent, indeed invincible, evidence that 
the practice probably emanates from the very core of the 
human psyche and will never be eradicated."

"Capital punishment can have only two definite and 
absolutely inarguable aims. The first is simply to put an end 
to a criminal's earthly existence. The second is to prevent 
repetition of crime by the individual thus eliminated."

--Jack Kevorkian: "Prescription: Medicine. The Goodness of 
Planned Death. (New York: Prometheus Books 1991)

***

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