Dr.

Jack Kevorkian Dead At 83

By: Austin C. Howe

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is dead at 83, reports the Detroit Free Press. He had been
suffering from kidney problems, and a variety of other health conditions which
prompted his release from prison on parole in 2007.

Dr. Kevorkian was one of the first advocates in the United States for the right of
doctors to assist in the suicides of their patients who are terminally ill. Before his
time, it was a topic that went unspoken of, despite countries in Western Europe
like the Netherlands already allowing doctors the right to assist in the willful death
of their patients.

Dr. Kevorkian first became concerned with death when he was a medical
patient and observed a cancer patient die. According to him, at the time of the
death, the cancer had so eaten away at the patient that the skin seemed to
simply rest on top of the bones like a cloak.

During the 80’s he wrote a series of articles for the German Medicine and Law
journal that expressed his views in support of euthanasia, and revealed a general
fascination of death, such as a series of articles saying that death-row prisoners
should have the right to choose to die by anesthesia so their organs could be
donated to the sick and their bodies be used as cadavers for medical students.

In 1990, he assisted in the suicide of his first patient, Janet Adkins, a former
teacher suffering from Alzheimer’s. He was arrested shortly afterwards (he called
the police himself to alert them of the death of Ms. Adkins), but was soon
released, starting a pattern. Over the course of 8 years he claimed to have
assisted in the suicides of at least 130 patients.

In 1998, having received a bit of fame and notoriety for his work, he went
farther. Up until then, his patients had all performed the final procedure of
administering lethal drugs themselves, but in the case of Thomas Youk he
himself administered the drugs. And recorded it on camera. And had it aired on
60 Minutes as a part of a special on him and his advocacy.

He was arrested and eventually sentenced to 10-25 years for second-degree

murder, but following health problems was released in 2007 on parole. He
stopped assisting in suicides, becoming a full-time advocate to have laws on
assisted suicide changed based on the 9th amendment’s guarantee of rights not
necessarily declared explicitly in the constitution.
 In 2010, he was the subject of a film starring Al Pacino, You Don’t Know Jack,
which was well received, as well a documentary in 2008 about his run for
Michigan’s 7th Congressional District seat in Congress as an independent. (He
lost.)

He died in a Detroit-area hospital, in the presence of his lawyer from the 90’s
Geoffery Fieger, also a close friend, one of Dr. Kevorkian’s only.