Not only do I know Dr. Jack Kevorkian, but I know Neal Nicol, as well.

As a matter of fact, Neal sat down beside me in a theater in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to watch the socially evolved play, Good Death, that was created by the theater members at Western Michigan University, last October, and does a tremendous job at conveying the real Dr. Kevorkian to the public.

I had a bit of a problem with John Goodman in the role of Neal Nicol, due to the overabundance of belly and body fat the actor carries about. I was with Neal 15 years ago and 6 months ago, and, I can tell you that, yes, Neal Nicol is a big man, but he is not a big slump of fat like the actor who portrayed him.

I know a movie is a movie, but when the people are real and are the very people who helped my son, Nick Loving, escape the protracted suffering of Lou Gehrig’s and die a Good Death, the film is seen through a unique prism, one of actual experience.

By the way, Nick passed away on Neal’s couch in the living room of his lovely home, which had been used before and broken into by the police so many times that Neal put a sign over the front door saying, “Police Entrance.”

On Thursday, April 15, 2010, John Goodman was a guest on The View, following a discussion on the merits of assisted death, as a result of the HBO movie premier about Dr. Kevorkian.

Why John Goodman? Because he portrays Neal Nicol, Dr. Kevorkian’s friend and assistant, in the HBO production, You Don’t Know Jack, which premiered in New York on Wednesday night, April 14.

Thumbs down for John Goodman, who was so fucked up, on who knows what, that he failed to say anything about the movie. He failed to live up to his contractual obligation to PROMOTE the work. If I were HBO, I would sue him for breach of contract.

The showcase of John Goodman on behalf of You Don’t Know Jack was a promotional failure.

By the way, my beloved Nick left this world in the home of the REAL NEAL NICOL!

Good Death, the play brought to life through the collaborative gifted talents of the theatrical group at Western Michigan University and the esteemed Tectonic director, Kelli Simpkins, portrays the truth about Dr. Kevorkian.

Kalamazoo residents are just the first to see the doctor for who he really is, as a result of the most powerful ground-breaking play of the 21 century. Good Death is an electrifying work that will forever change the way this country looks at the doctor, those he helped, and the phenomenon we call death.

Good Death is coming to Kalamazoo!

Theater students at Western Michigan University have  undertaken the task of presenting to you a comprehensive look at human mortality in society. Their original play is a collaborative work by the WMU theater students and members of the acclaimed Tectonic Theater Project.

Good Death is an original play based upon thought-provoking research and interviews on the topic Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought to light in 1990: death, dying, and euthanasia. It has taken 19 years to evolve to this point!

I look forward to the theatrical production and my trip to Michigan to meet with the talent dedicated to broaching the most important issue of human life: mortal certainty.

Bulletin

The good doctor is out on the road again.

Look for him in Kutztown, Pennsylvania,  where he will appear at Schaeffer Auditorium, on Sunday, September 20, 2009, at seven o’clock in the evening. There is no cost to the public to witness the enduring character of a man who has done more for social evolution than any other contemporary individual.

Dr. Kevorkian will discuss civil rights, civil disobedience, and criminal justice.

SFGate, home of the SF Chronicle, is littered with hatred for a man, a doctor, named Kevorkian. You can see for yourself, if you care to read the opinion piece entitled You Really Don’t Know Jack, written by Debra J. Sanders.

She believes she knows more about the world renowned Dr. Kevorkian than the “fawning interviewers” who have posed questions at him. Miss Sanders is ill informed on the reality about death, dying, and euthanasia in this nation & equally ill informed regarding the doctor she hates.

She stated Dr. Kevorkian engaged in “mercy killings for healthy people.” She even said that “some of Kevorkian’s victims were not even sick.”

The Internet is full of this garbage. Her tone and hatred for the good doctor reminded me of another voice out there on the web, and what do you know? It is the voice of her husband, Wesley J. Smith.

I had to laugh! People with nothing but opinions acting out of pompous ego! Best of all, the comments left by readers were not impressed with her opinions.

September 2, 2009

goes down as a red letter day on the calendar in the United States of America,
the rapidly metamorphosing nation to come under the rule
of the fanatical fascist power of medicine.

On that remarkable Wednesday,
Fox Network interviewed the country’s most intelligent citizen and, by far,
the most honest doctor anyone will ever hear speak,
the most honorable doctor,
Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

The interview was conducted by Neil Cavuto,
a glossy Fox network talking head, who I guess gave his best shot
to interview the most famous man of the 1990’s and the most famous doctor
ever associated with the protracted struggle we face
to die by the wish of human will,
rather than the dictates of the pernicious
laws of medicine.

As someone experienced with the deaths of two beloved twin sons,
I could see that Mr. Cavuto was without experience
in the arena of death, dying, and euthanasia.
Of course, that is the way Fox wants it:
Have the blind lead the blind.

Whatever the reason might be for Fox to interview Dr. Kevorkian,
it was the right thing to do on the part of the media.
We will be seeing more of Dr. Kevorkian
now that he is free to speak his mind and HBO is making a film
on his remarkable contribution to society!

You Don’t Know Jack.
But I do!

Thank GOD for Dr. Kevorkian!

Sounds like a smart ass remark, as though someone were going to say: You don’t know jack shit! But that is not what it is.

You Don’t Know Jack is the title of HBO’s biography about Dr. Kevorkian, due out next spring. In the year 2010, HBO will present you its viewers a motion picture depiction of America’s courageous doctor, who put his life on the line to help the terminally suffering individuals escape the tyranny of the AMA and die in peace.

We are making progress in the effort to raise the interest of medical compassion and the truth about Dr. Kevorkian, but the choice of actor to portray the compassionate, selfless doctor is Al Pacino.

Al Pacino?

In 1996, before I signed a book contract for My Son, My Sorrow, HBO put a great deal of consideration into a contract for the movie rights. It was an almost that got sidestepped. Had they made the offer, I wonder who they would have selected to play Dr. Kevorkian. Surely, it would not have been Al Pacino.

In 2001, when Castle Rock Entertainment offered a contract for the movie rights of My Son, My Sorrow, who did they have in mind to play Dr. Kevorkian? Surely, it would not  have been Al Pacino.

At least, this is a major step by a motion picture production company to attempt to bring about social recognition of a man intrinsically important to our social consideration of life and death, freedom and slavery.

Medical slavery.

Here is further information from Dr. Kevorkian’s book about wholesale beheadings and the doctors fascinated by their own experiments and the belief that consciousness persists after decapitation:

The same Italian investigator had done prior testing on severed heads in Bologna.

There he had noted that electrical contact on the lips caused a small amount of saliva to flow from the mouth. When touched to the exposed surface of the brain, all facial muscles contracted. Direct contact wit the electrodes to the optic and olfactory nerves gave no reaction.

Instead of supplying answers to the question of persistence of consciousness in severed heads, this kind of experimentation merely polarized the controversy and broadened the scope of activity.

Those who insisted that consciousness did persist in a severed head (even for up to a quarter of an hour) were encouraged by results from an execution in Breslau, Germany, on the morning of 25 February 1803.

Immediately after the criminal was beheaded by sword, an electrical device produced strong muscular contractions in the head. Two assistants held the head firmly while the researcher stared intently at the face.

At the same time the cut end of the spinal cord was touched with a mechanical probe. The facial muscles contracted and the lips twisted. It looked like a grimace of pain. When the researcher  swiftly thrust his finger toward the open eye of the detached head, its lids closed as though the brain were conscious of an immediate threat.

The eyelids also closed when the head was faced toward the sun.

Next, the investigator shouted the victim’s name into an ear. The eyelids opened, and the gaze slowly turned toward the source of the sound. The mouth made movements as though trying to open and speak. A local merchant who was timing the various phases of the experiment announced that one and a half minutes had elapsed at the end of the hearing test.

Galvanic stimulation was repeated, and muscular reaction was now weaker. However, deep mechanical probing of the spinal cord yielded facial contortions so violent as to cause many to shout, “He’s alive!”

The eyelids slammed shut, and they were further compressed by muscular spasms that puffed the cheeks as though in pain. Teeth clamped down on fingers inserted into the mouth of the severed head, and even more forcefully with repeated probing of the spinal cord.

Another independent experiment of this kind in the same years revealed traces of muscular activity for more than an hour after decapitation.

-pages 148 to 149

He’s alive!?! Doctors actually thought a decapitated head was alive. Hard to believe they represented the educated. Definitely, the sanctity of life and death meant absolutely nothing to those doctors who used dead bodies like they were dispensable lab rats.