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The following article is from the SAVES newsletter, The
VE Bulletin, Vol 16 No 1, Mar 99
KEVORKIAN
For those who came in late
Dr Jack Kevorkian, aged 70, is a retired pathologist who has become prominent
in the voluntary euthanasia movement over the last 10 years through more
or less openly assisting in excess of 130 of his patients to commit suicide.
His eccentric and often flamboyant style has led to claims by opponents
that he is driven more by a need to be the centre of attention than a genuine
concern with the suffering of the terminally ill. Attacking the messenger
in this and other ways, however, ignores the reality that Kevorkian is
responding to a deep need of many in the community to have a say in how
and when they will die should their quality of life become intolerable
with no hope of adequate relief. To the majority, he is a medical and political
hero.
Kevorkian lives in Michigan, one of a few States in the USA that had
no statutory legislation against assisting suicide until recently. He first
came to prominence in 1990 when he assisted Janet Adkins, an Alzheimer's
Disease victim, to die. It was the first use of the suicide machine he
invented which allowed the patient to push a computer button to initiate
the injection of the medication which would end his or her life. Subsequently
he was dubbed "Dr Death" by the media and has become the subject of countless
jokes and cartoons.
He has been acquitted at three trials involving five deaths and a mistrial
was declared shortly after a fourth trial had begun. The best known of
his legal support team is the colourfully outspoken Geoffrey Feiger who
recently unsuccessfully stood for the position of Governor of Michigan.
Kevorkian is often described with some justification as a maverick,
ie, a dissenter or loner. He operates outside the established voluntary
euthanasia movement and this provides his greatest strength and in some
ways his greatest weakness. He can follow his own convictions in his own
way: but he is not constrained by others of like mind who may favour a
somewhat different approach. Even so few would disagree that he has stimulated
the voluntary euthanasia debate world-wide more than any other.
Recent Developments
On Sunday 22 November 1998, the United States TV program, 60 Minutes,
included a 14-minute segment which showed Kevorkian delivering a lethal
injection to one of his patients. The patient, Thomas Youk, aged 52, was
in the advanced stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known
as Lou Gehrig's disease in the USA. He was in a wheelchair, barely able
to speak.
Kevorkian had made a video recording of his patient's death on 17 September
1998 when he injected three chemicals into a vein in Youk's right hand
- one to put him to sleep, another to relax his muscles and stop his breathing
and a third - potassium chloride - to stop his heart. Youk's family was
not present to avoid possible legal proceedings against them.
Kevorkian had previously restricted his activities to medically assisted
suicide. Now he was providing voluntary euthanasia. The law places an absolute
prohibition on this practice so that Kevorkian was clearly inviting prosecution.
Failure to prosecute could only be seen as an acknowledgment of the inadequacy
of the law but prosecution was by no means certain to succeed. Added to
this was Kevorkian's defiant attitude and threat to refuse food if jailed.
The media had a field day in which Kevorkian attracted significantly more
support than condemnation.
On 25 November the Michigan prosecutors charged Kevorkian with first-degree
premeditated murder, criminal assistance of a suicide and delivery of a
controlled substance for administering a lethal injection to a terminally
ill man. He was subsequently released on bail. The trial has been set for
March 1999 and is certain to keep the focus on the need for change in the
law.
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