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“60 Minutes” Releases “scandalous”, “irresponsible” Program on Kevorkian Prison Release

Sanitized program excludes all crucial, condemning facts about serial euthanasia killer

By Gudrun Schultz

LANSING, Michigan, June 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Notorious assisted suicide activist Jack Kevorkian was released from prison on Friday, after serving eight years for second-degree murder in the death of a severely disabled man. Kevorkian, now 79, was involved in the deaths of more than 130 people before his conviction, many of them free from any diagnosed illness.

Media swarmed Kevorkian’s release, lauding him as a right-to-die advocate. “60 Minutes” will air an exclusive interview with Kevorkian on Tuesday.

Attorney and bioethics critic Wesley J. Smith criticized Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” for releasing a sanitized interview with Kevorkian, after Smith viewed an advance of the broadcast. The affectionate hug and smiling greeting Wallace bestowed on Kevorkian at his release, captured by media coverage, were cut from the video. Wallace’s personal support of euthanasia was not mentioned.

“Nor did [Wallace] ask Kevorkian about tearing out the kidneys of Joseph Tushkowski and offering them for transplant ‘first come, first served,’” Smith wrote in a posting on his blogsite Secondhand Smoke.

“He did not mention nor ask Kevorkian about the undisputed fact that most of Kevorkian’s ‘patients’ were not terminally ill. He did not mention nor ask Kevorkian about the fact that Kevorkian has never advocated that euthanasia be limited to the terminally ill. Etc., etc., ad nauseum.”

As well, Wallace bypassed Kevorkian’s grim interest in experimentation on living human beings - in multiple articles published over the past 50-odd years, Kevorkian has admitted to the ultimate goal of performing human vivisection on individuals facing execution or voluntary euthanasia.

Smith called the interview “scandalous” and “irresponsible”, saying it was “journalism at its most unjournalistic.”

The terms of Kevorkian’s parole prevent him from personal contact with the elderly or disabled for a period of two years, and forbid him from any involvement with assisted suicide. While Kevorkian has said he will not break the law again, he has pledged to work toward getting the practice legalized.

See Wesley J. Smith’s Blog
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/blogger.html

See further commentary by Wesley J. Smith:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWM5MTI4NjJmZGM3NTUxMGU...

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Kevorkian Vows to Push for Assisted Suicide Laws After Upcoming Prison Release
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07052301.html

KEVORKIAN SENTENCED TO 10-25 YEARS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/apr/99041301.html

Kevorkian Unrepentant, Says He Won't Kill Again, But Would have Killed Terri Schiavo
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05100303.html ...;

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