Assisted Suicide Doctor Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83

[Gaybutton]

Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; Backed Assisted Suicide

By KEITH SCHNEIDER
Published: June 3, 2011

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the central figure in the tumultuous national drama surrounding assisted suicide, died Friday in a Michigan hospital. He was 83 and lived in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The cause of his death was not immediately known, but local media reported that he had suffered from kidney and respiratory problems and that his condition had been worsening in recent days. His death was confirmed by Geoffrey Feiger, the lawyer who represented him during several of his trials in the 1990s.

Dr. Kevorkian, a medical pathologist, challenged social taboos about disease and dying, willfully defied prosecutors and the courts, actively sought national celebrity, and spent eight years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of the last of the more than 100 terminally ill patients whose lives he helped end.

From June 1990, when he assisted in the first suicide, until March 1999, when he was sentenced to serve 10 to 25 years in a maximum security prison, Dr. Kevorkian was a controversial figure. But his critics and supporters generally agree on this: As a result of his stubborn and often intemperate advocacy for the right of the terminally ill to choose how they die, hospice care has boomed in the United States, and physicians have become more sympathetic to their pain and more willing to prescribe medication to relieve it.

In 1997, Oregon became the first state to enact a statute making it legal for physicians to prescribe lethal medications to help terminally ill patients end their lives. In 2006 the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that found that Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act protected a legitimate medical practice.

During the nine years between the law’s passage and the court’s ruling, Dr. Kevorkian’s confrontational strategy consumed thousands of column inches in national newspapers, graced the covers of national magazines and drew the attention of “60 Minutes” and other television news programs. His nickname, Dr. Death, and his self-made suicide machine, which he variously called the “Mercitron” or the “Thanatron,” became fodder for late-night television comedians.

Given his obdurate public persona and his delight in flaying medical critics as “hypocritic oafs,” Dr. Kevorkian invited and reveled in the public’s attention, regardless of its sting.

The American Medical Association in 1995 called him “a reckless instrument of death” who “poses a great threat to the public.”

Diane Coleman, the founder of Not Dead Yet, a right-to-life advocacy group that once picketed Dr. Kevorkian’s home in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb, attacked his approach. “It’s the ultimate form of discrimination to offer people with disabilities help to die,” she said, “without having offered real options to live."

But Jack Lessenberry, a prominent Michigan journalist who closely covered Dr. Kevorkian’s one-man campaign, said: “Jack Kevorkian, faults and all, was a major force for good in this society. He forced us to pay attention to one of the biggest elephants in society’s living room: the fact that today vast numbers of people are alive who would rather be dead, who have lives not worth living.”


Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04kevorkian.html

[Bob]

Kevorkian, like the one guy said, did raise the issue - an extremely important one - in the national conciousness; unfortunately, the manner in which he and his especially-snakey lawyer (Feiger) handled it set back any advancement on the issue for decades.

[Gaybutton]

I agree with Bob. I'm strongly in favor of "the right to die," but unfortunately Kevorkian brought the issue to the forefront in the wrong way. If it wasn't for him doing that infamous 60-Minutes interview he might never have been convicted of a crime. I believe Kevorkian was right, but went about things the wrong way. But he definitely succeeded in bringing out public awareness of the importance of the issue. I, for one, want the right to die with some dignity at a time of my own choosing if I end up in some sort of terrible condition. I don't want to have to needlessly suffer through a long, lingering, painful, slow death, not to mention the expense of it and what it can put my family and friends through. I would much rather either flip a switch myself, or designate someone of my own choosing to do it for me. To me, that's a lot better than ending up splattered all over the place by crash landing in the Center Condo parking lot.

I feel we all have the right to end it all if no quality of life is left and all you can look forward to is suffering and agony as the way your life is going to end. I want to be able to say no to that and go out in a way that doesn't put me through that. To me, Kevorkian was a hero in what he tried to do, but also a fool in the manner by which he tried.

[Bob]

To me, Kevorkian was a hero in what he tried to do, but also a fool in the manner by which he tried.

Sounds like we're on the same page. A very important issue was debased by Mr. Death's antics and even more so by the antics of his lawyer (who subsequently ran for governor and, thankfully, was soundly beaten).

[Smiles]

. . . and that's why I have the avatar I have.
Bob, promise me you'll help pull the trigger if the price of cassava keeps falling.

[ralfo]

He's a nice man for trying but rude people dont get far, maybe somebody nicer will do it better.