Jack Kevorkian

Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26, 1928) is a controversial American medical doctor. He is famous for advocating patient's "right to die" and assisting in the suicides of terminally ill people.

Pursuit of Planned Death

In the early 1980s he published numerous articles in the obscure German journal Medicine and Law outlining his ideas on euthanasia and ethics. In 1987 he started advertising in Detroit papers as a "physician consultant" for "death counseling". In 1988 Kevorkian's article, "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death," was published in Medicine and Law. In it, he outlined his proposed system of planned deaths in suicide clinics, including medical experimentation on patients.

Related Topics:
1980s - German - Medicine and Law - 1987 - 1988

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In 1988 he built his suicide machine using $30 worth of scrap parts scrounged from garage sales and hardware stores, on the kitchen table of his Royal Oak, Michigan, apartment. On June 4, 1990, he assisted in his first suicide: Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Portland, Oregon, woman with Alzheimer's disease. Her death using the "suicide machine" occurred in Kevorkian's 1968 Volkswagen van in Groveland Oaks Park near Holly, Michigan.

Related Topics:
1988 - Royal Oak - Michigan - June 4 - 1990 - Portland - Oregon - Alzheimer's disease - 1968 - Volkswagen - Holly, Michigan

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Dr. Kevorkian's assisted suicides occurred from 1990 to 1998. In each case, he hooked the individual up to a machine he created to facilitate death. After being hooked up, the client would push a button that would release the drugs or chemicals that would end his or her life. Two such assisted suicides were by means of a lethal injection machine, and the rest were by machines that would kill the client by means of a gas mask fed by a canister of carbon monoxide.

Related Topics:
Assisted suicide - 1990 - 1998 - Lethal injection - Carbon monoxide

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Other patients

October 23, 1991: Marjorie Wantz, a 58-year-old Sodus, Michigan, woman with pelvic pain, and Sherry Miller, a 43-year-old Roseville, Michigan, woman with multiple sclerosis. The deaths occur at a rented state park cabin near Lake Orion, Michigan. Wantz dies from the suicide machine's lethal drugs, Miller from carbon monoxide poisoning inhaled through a face mask.

Related Topics:
October 23 - 1991 - Sodus, Michigan - Pelvic - Roseville, Michigan - Multiple sclerosis - State park - Lake Orion - Michigan - Carbon monoxide

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May 15,1992: Susan Williams, a 52-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis, dies from carbon monoxide poisoning in her home in Clawson, Michigan.

Related Topics:
May 15 - 1992 - Clawson, Michigan

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September 26, 1992: Lois Hawes, 52, a Warren, Michigan, woman with lung and brain cancer, dies from carbon monoxide poisoning at the home of Kevorkian's assistant Neal Nicol in Waterford Township, Michigan.

Related Topics:
September 26 - 1992 - Warren, Michigan - Brain cancer - Neal Nicol - Waterford Township, Michigan

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November 26, 1994: Hours after Michigan's ban on assisted suicide expires, 72-year-old Margaret Garrish dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in her home in Royal Oak. She had arthritis and osteoporosis. Kevorkian is not present when police arrive.

Related Topics:
November 26 - 1994 - Arthritis - Osteoporosis

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June 26, 1995: Kevorkian opens a "suicide clinic" in an office in Springfield Township, Michigan. Erika Garcellano, a 60-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, woman with ALS, is the first client.

Related Topics:
June 26 - 1995 - Springfield Township, Michigan - Kansas City, Missouri

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Altogether, Kevorian reportedly helped over 100 people to end their lives, the vast majority of them between 1996 and 1998.

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Controversy and legal battles

Dr. Kevorkian actively sought publicity for himself and his euthanasia program; he claimed his intention was to stir public debate on the right to die. He was charged with murder in Michigan a number of times; he was acquitted or had a mistrial in four criminal trials, and judges dismissed some other charges against him; in some of these cases, lower courts declared that in the United States, there is a constitutionally-based right to die. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the states do have the right to outlaw doctor-assisted suicide.

Related Topics:
Publicity - Murder - Constitutionally - 1997 - U.S. Supreme Court

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Dr. Kevorkian's activities did stir debate, and brought the right to die into the spotlight of media attention. At least partly as a result of this attention, in 1994, and again in 1997, voters in Oregon approved its Death with Dignity Act, authorizing doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who want to die. These initiatives have been attacked by the federal government and other groups since their passage.

Related Topics:
1994 - Oregon - Death with Dignity Act

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Some have praised Dr. Kevorkian. Those who were seeking his services, as well as family members of the terminally ill people he helped die expressed deep gratitude for his assistance. Other supporters include those who generally support the legalization of the voluntary euthanasia or suicide of a terminally ill patient, especially when the patient is in pain. Studies have indicated that most doctors seem to support a terminally ill patient volunteering to end his own life and that euthanasia is often carried out "sub rosa" especially for those able to afford private medical care.

Related Topics:
Euthanasia - Suicide - Sub rosa

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Others have criticized his actions. Some critics, often on religious grounds, categorically oppose the proposition that the terminally ill (or those in constant pain) have the right to take their own lives.

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Beyond these criticisms, critics have stated that Dr. Kevorkian has primarily practiced as a pathologist, has relatively little experience with live patients, and has had all his licenses to practice medicine revoked. His critics also indicate that he does not have the training to evaluate whether a prospective client is clinically depressed or otherwise incapable of deciding to end their own life.

Related Topics:
Pathologist - Clinically depressed

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