Schiavo brother heads effort to stop Kevorkian event at University of Florida

Jul 18, 2007 / 08:25 am

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is scheduled to speak at the University of Florida Oct. 11 for a $50,000-speaker fee.

"We figure that this will be a great way to engage our student body and entertain," said Steven Blank of ACCENT, the University of Florida student-government funded speaker's bureau.

"We do understand that this will spark controversy. And that is something we have done in the past," Blank told LifeSiteNews.com.

Kevorkian, who is known to have assisted about 130 people to commit suicide, was released from prison earlier this year on "good behavior" after serving only eight years of a 10-to-25-year sentence. He received the sentence for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk, which he televised. Shortly after being released from prison, the infamous doctor declared his intention to continue advocating for assisted suicide on demand.

When asked whether ACCENT was concerned about giving a public platform to a convicted murderer, Blank said ACCENT was not necessarily advocating Kevorkian's opinions.

"We aren't bringing him in to try to convince people of his views but to engage the student body, and they can choose for themselves," said Blank. He said ACCENT believed adding Kevorkian to the roster of speakers would add a positive "diversity" to the speaker lineup.

However, the brother of Terri Schiavo, Bobby Schindler, is concerned about Kevorkian’s speaking engagement at the university.

"He's targeting our college kids, and I find it very troubling," Schindler told LifeSiteNews. "We're sending this message to our young kids that the answer to human suffering and the chronically ill is to kill, and it's extremely dangerous and troubling."

While in prison, Kevorkian had stated in an interview that he would have killed Terri Schiavo, had her husband asked him.

Schindler, who had worked tirelessly to protect his sister from a painful death by dehydration and starvation, also criticized ACCENT for claiming not to take sides and for presenting the issue for consideration.

"How can that be if they're only getting one side of the issue?” he was quoted as saying. “They're not having someone speaking on compassion, and why assisted suicide is potentially destructive. … I don't see how the students are going to choose if they're only going to hear one side of the argument."

Schindler has launched a petition to stop Kevorkian's appearance at the University of Florida.

For the petition, go to: http://tool.donation-net.net/entrance/enter.cfm?dn=1068&...