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photo by Flores Biology professor Dr. Hessel Bouma III serves as chairperson of the Community Board for the Hospice of Greater Grand Rapids.

Jack Kevorkian has finally stepped over the line. Oakland County Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper made that point glaringly real as she sentenced “Dr. Death” to a 10- to 25-year prison term on April 13.

How was the nationally-televised assisted suicide of 52-year-old Thomas Youk different from the numerous other suicides in which Dr. Kevorkian had a part? Calvin College professor of biology Hessel Bouma III commented on this. Bouma has been deeply involved in the physician-assisted suicide issue through his position as chairperson of the Community board of the Hospice of Greater Grand Rapids. He said that the court’s decision did not hinge on the nature of the offense but on how it was labeled. In past trials, Kevorkian had been tried under the Michigan law which prohibits physician- assisted suicide.

Bouma explained that this case is different for two reasons. First, Kevorkian was found guilty of distributing and possessing an illegal substance. Second, he performed the lethal injection himself. This was not a case of physician-assisted suicide but a case of deliberately-executed death — second-degree murder, in legal terminology.

Bouma said that he believes the sentencing was imperative. To pave the way for further enforcement of the ban on physician-assisted suicide, the courts had to find him guilty. “He thumbed his nose at the law,” Bouma said.

Without this ruling, the ban wold have continued to be difficult to enforce. Juries of past Kevorkian trial have been locked into indecision by emotional testimony from the families of the deceased, Bouma explained. Trying Kevorkian for murder prevented this testimony and thus prevented the “jury nullification” that had kept Kevorkian from behind bars before.

The central issues behind the case are still to be examined. Although he is strongly opposed to physician-assisted suicide, Bouma recognizes that there are still a number of uncertainties regarding the practice and euthanasia as well. Some of these uncertainties include the following questions, which Bouma asked.

To what extent is there truly irremediable pain and suffering? Bouma says that too many health care practitioners have inadequate knowledge of pain management. He thinks that it would be better to teach physicians how to manage pain before considering training them to kill.

Is modern medicine able to accept death? For decades physicians were trained to see death as failure. A practice of medicine which enables dying patients to function as well as they can, even as they die, should be developed and implemented, in Bouma’s opinion.

Should physicians, whose professional calling is to cure and to care, now be permitted to assist in killing? If doctors ARE allowed to kill patients, the doctor-patient relationship will never be the same again.

Will freedom to die lead to a duty to die - particularly for the elderly, chronically ill and the disabled?

Bouma’s faith and his work on the Hospice Board have convinced him that healthy and effective alternatives can be offered to those in pain. He expressed the importance of Christians uniting in support of these alternatives. He asked simply, “Can we be the presence of Christ in the valley of the shadow of death?”