Monday, March 29, 2010

Memorial Monday - Jerome "Jerry" Brudos

Jan. 31, 1939 - Mar. 29, 2006
Known as 'The Shoe Fetish Killer.' A native of Webster, South Dakota, he was a former electrician, who became serial kiler, and later one of Oregon's most notorious inmates...Although he was convicted of 3 murders, he confessed to four, and was suspected of at least 6 others...Brudos died at the age of 67, at the Oregon State Prison, from colon cancer.
photo added by K

My selections for this somewhat-regular feature are pretty much made at random. I have no idea what I'm going to find whenever I start looking.

Most of the entries at Find a Grave feature people from the fields of politics, professional sports, the military, art, and literature, and while I respect them and their accomplishments, I'm more interested in learning about others who may not be well-known, or whose deaths prompt me to think about things that I may not otherwise have thought about.

I recently featured two women who were murdered, and today's anniversary for the death of a man who murdered many women reminds me of the first principle of the code for ethical practice by nurses, as articulated by the American Nurses Association:
The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems.
I'm not saying it's easy, or perhaps even always possible, to accept that every human being has the right to skilled care whenever it's needed. But maybe once any of us starts to draw a line, where do we stop?