In wake of California’s new right-to-die law going into effect Thursday, Dr. Lonny Shavelson is opening up his own euthanasia practice, and he’s not even an oncologist.
Shavelson served as an emergency room physician for 29 years and previously wrote a book about five people who were contemplating assisted suicide, noted the East Bay Time. He also served as a primary care physician for immigrants and refugees for seven years. He left medicine for two years in order to work on a “gender fluidity” documentary.
Shayelson decided to return to medicine following California’s new law by opening “Bay Area End of Life Options,” which provides end of life drugs for terminally ill patients. He will charge $200 for the initial evaluation and $1,800 “to cover the cost of more detailed evaluations and visits, and forms related to the law,” according to a report.
Credentials of a “death doctor”
Despite his inflated credentials, for the bulk of Shavelson’s career, he worked as a part time or contract ER doctor, meaning he will be writing medical prescriptions for terminal illnesses that fall outside his expertise.
No sane person would go to an ER doctor to treat his or her cancer, but that’s not stopping Shavelson. His judgment could be skewed while giving out lethal prescriptions, since it’s practically impossible for even real medical experts in those areas of practice to stay up to date with the rapid changes in a specific field.
Even more harrowing, Shavelson recapitulated in his book, A Chosen Death, an experience he had where he stood by as a Hemlock Society suicide-assister murdered a disabled man under the pseudonym “Gene.”
Shavelson purports Gene was a lonely, depressed widower with a major alcohol problem. He tried to kill himself twice in the past. The first attempt took place before he had two strokes that rendered him somewhat impaired but not terminally ill. Nevertheless, Gene wanted to end his life. He contacted an undisclosed chapter of the Hemlock Society and its heads, a women under the alias of “Sarah,” to help him commit suicide.
Shavelson noted Sarah had experience in the suicide business, having helped a close friend end her life before. Sarah said she found helping others take their own lives to be extremely satisfying, “the most intimate experience you can share with a person. . . . More than sex. More than birth . . . more than anything,” even greater than witnessing “the deliveries of my four grandchildren.”
Making of a murderer
Shavelson watched Sarah stir Gene a poisonous cocktail and hand it over to him. After drinking the liquid, Gene began to fall asleep while Sarah held his head on her lap. Once he started to snore, Sarah placed a plastic bag over his head and hummed, “See the light. Go to the light.” In face of the specter of death, Gene changed his mind. He yelled “I’m cold” and attempted to rip off the plastic bag from his head.
Nevertheless, Sarah continued her “assistance,” as Shavelson explained:
“His good band flew up to tear off the plastic bag. Sarah’s band caught Gene’s wrist and held it. His body thrust upwards. She pulled his arm away and lay across Gene’s shoulders. Sarah rocked back and forth, pinning him down, her fingers twisting the bag to seal it tight at his neck as she repeated, ‘the light, Gene, go toward the light.’ Gene’s body pushed against Sarah’s. Then he stopped moving.”
If Shavelson’s summary of the incident is correct, then what he bore witness to was nothing but cold, faced murder. And now, the same “doctor” who watched a helpless man die and did nothing about it will be able to profit for similar “services.”
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