Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “Jack Kevorkian, 1928-2011; Doctor Who Helped End Lives” (obituary, front page, June 4):

Zealots often do irreparable damage to the cause they passionately believe in. Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s defiantly illegal assistance in suicides—some 130, by his count—outraged so many people that his crusade was derailed and he spent eight years in jail. His great success, however, was in forcing our attention on an issue we had long preferred to ignore.

His argument made sense: when life is empty of everything except suffering and there is no hope, surely the decision to sustain or end it should be the choice of the individual.

With Dr. Kevorkian’s death, we can look clearheadedly at this last taboo in American society. It’s more than time. The approximately 79 million baby boomers will push the number of elderly to an unprecedented high. That cohort is most vulnerable, most in need of this ultimate right. The boomers would be wise to plan ahead so that when they reach old age, the end could be on their terms.

JANICE JOSEPHSON
Great Neck, N.Y., June 4, 2011