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{{Short description|American pathologist and euthanasia activist (1928–2011)}}{{For|other people nicknamed Dr. Death|Dr. Death (disambiguation){{!}}Dr. Death}}{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}

factoids

|birth_place = Pontiac, Michigan, U.S.201135mf=y}}|death_place = Royal Oak, Michigan, U.S.|years_active = 1952–2011|education = University of Michigan|occupation = Pathologist|specialism = Euthanasia medicineHenry Ford Hospital|Michigan Medicine}}}}Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 â€“ June 3, 2011) was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, embodied in his quote, "Dying is not a crime".BOOK, Introducing Christian Ethics, Samuel, Wells, Ben, Quash, 329, John Wiley and Sons, 2010, 978-1-4051-5276-1,weblink Kevorkian said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He was convicted of murder in 1999 and was often portrayed in the media with the name of "Dr. Death".JOURNAL, 2351178, 8664610, 312, 7044, Jack Kevorkian: a medical hero, Roberts J, Kjellstrand C, BMJ, 1434, June 8, 1996, 10.1136/bmj.312.7044.1434, In 1998, Kevorkian was arrested and tried for his role in the voluntary euthanasia of a man named Thomas Youk who had Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS. He was convicted of second-degree murder and served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition he would not offer advice about, participate in, or be present at the act of any type of euthanasia to any other person, nor that he promote or talk about the procedure of assisted suicide.Monica Davey. "Kevorkian Speaks After His Release From Prison". The New York Times. June 4, 2007.

Early life and education

Kevorkian was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on May 26, 1928,NEWS, Schneider, Keith, Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; A Doctor Who Helped End Lives,weblink The New York Times, June 3, 2011, WEB,weblink Jacob 'Jack' Kevorkian Dies; Death With Dignity Proponent Remembered, June 4, 2011, to Armenian immigrants from the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey). His father, Levon (1891–1960), was born in the village of Passen, near Erzurum, and his mother, Satenig (1900–1968), was born in the village of Govdun, near Sivas.WEB,weblink BHL: Jack Kevorkian papers, BOOK, glimmerIQs, Kevorkian, Jack, World Audience, Inc., Paperback, 2009, 978-1-935444-88-6, His father left Ottoman Armenia and made his way to Pontiac in 1912, where he found work at an automobile foundry. Satenig fled the Armenian genocide of 1915, finding refuge with relatives in Paris and eventually reuniting with her brother in Pontiac. Levon and Satenig met through the Armenian community in their city, where they married and began their family. The couple had a daughter, Margaret, in 1926, followed by son Murad, and their third and last child, Flora.WEB,weblink Biography, Kevorkian, Jack, www.thekevorkianpapers.com/, December 15, 2010, January 19, 2011, When Kevorkian was a child, his parents took him to an Orthodox church weekly.NEWS,weblink Suicide's Partner : Is Jack Kevorkian an angel of mercy, or is he a killer, as some critics charge? 'Society is making me Dr. Death,' he says. 'Why can't they see? I'm Dr. Life!', Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1992, Warrick, Pamela, January 28, 2022, He started questioning the existence of a God, as he believed an all-knowing God would have prevented the Armenian Genocide on his extended family. He stopped attending church by the time he was 12.WEB,weblink Jack Kevorkian | Biography, May 20, 2021, Kevorkian was a child prodigy, teaching himself multiple languages (including German, Russian, Greek, and Japanese).NEWS,weblink Jack Kevorkian: How he made controversial history, BBC News, June 3, 2011, As such, he was often alienated by his peers.BOOK,weblink Read Between the Dying and the Dead Online by Neal Nicol and Harry L. Wylie | Books, Kevorkian graduated from Pontiac Central High School with honors in 1945, at the age of 17. In 1952, he graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.BOOK, Chermak, Steven M., Bailey, Frankie Y., Crimes and Trials of the Century,weblink limited, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, 101–102, 978-0-313-34110-6, BOOK, Azadian, Edmond Y., Hacikyan, Agop J., Franchuk, Edward S., History on the move: views, interviews and essays on Armenian issues, An Interview with Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Wayne State University Press, 1999, Detroit, 233, 0-8143-2916-0,weblink Kevorkian completed residency training in anatomical and clinical pathology and briefly conducted research on blood transfusion.WEB, Jack Kevorkian Biography, Biography.com,weblink 2012, February 13, 2012,

Career

(File:KevorkianUCLARoyce.jpg|thumb|Kevorkian in 2011)Over a period of decades, Kevorkian developed several controversial ideas related to death. In a 1959 journal article, he wrote:{{Blockquote|I propose that a prisoner condemned to death by due process of law be allowed to submit, by his own free choice, to medical experimentation under complete anaesthesia (at the time appointed for administering the penalty) as a form of execution in lieu of conventional methods prescribed by law.JOURNAL, Kevorkian, Jack, Capital Punishment or Capital Gain, The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, May–June 1959, 50, 1, 50–51, }}Senior doctors at the University of Michigan, Kevorkian's employer, opposed his proposal and Kevorkian chose to leave the university rather than stop advocating his ideas. Ultimately, he gained little support for his plan. He returned to the idea of using death-row inmates for medical purposes after the Supreme Court's 1976 decision in Gregg v. Georgia reinstituted the death penalty. He advocated harvesting the organs from inmates after the death penalty was carried out for transplant into sick patients, but he failed to gain the cooperation of prison officials.NEWS, Betzold, Michael, 1993: Excerpt from 'Appointment with Doctor Death',weblink April 29, 2012, Detroit Free Press, September 19, 1993, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121108061240weblink">weblink November 8, 2012, As a pathologist at Pontiac General Hospital, Kevorkian experimented with transfusing blood from the recently deceased into live patients. He drew blood from corpses recently brought into the hospital and transferred it successfully into the bodies of hospital staff members. Kevorkian thought that the U.S. military might be interested in using this technique to help wounded soldiers during a battle, but the Pentagon was not interested.In the 1980s, Kevorkian wrote a series of articles for the German journal Medicine and Law that laid out his thinking on the ethics of euthanasia.MAGAZINE, Death becomes him, Lessenberry, Jack, July 1994, Vanity Fair, PBS.org,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20030806015344weblink">weblink August 6, 2003, July 11, 2010, dead, In 1987, Kevorkian started advertising in Detroit newspapers as a physician consultant for "death counseling". His first public assisted suicide, of Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old woman diagnosed in 1989 with Alzheimer's disease, took place in 1990. Charges of murder were dropped on December 13, 1990, as there were, at that time, no laws in Michigan regarding assisted suicide.WEB, People v. Kevorkian; Hobbins v. Attorney General, Ascension Health, 1994, May 13, 2011,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20030908034403weblink">weblink September 8, 2003, In 1991, however, the State of Michigan revoked Kevorkian's medical license and made it clear that, given his actions, he was no longer permitted to practice medicine or to work with patients.NEWS,weblink Kevorkian medical license revoked, Lodi News-Sentinel, Michigan, 8, Associated Press, November 21, 1991, His California medical license was suspended in April 1993 by an administrative law judge, with Kevorkian's attorney responding that Kevorkian "will go on assisting people commit suicide. He dares that California judge to come catch him".NEWS,weblink State Suspends Kevorkian’s Medical License, Michael, Granberry, April 28, 1993, Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2024, According to his lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people between 1990 and 1998. In each of these cases, the individuals themselves allegedly took the final action which resulted in their own deaths. Kevorkian allegedly assisted only by attaching the individual to a euthanasia device that he had devised and constructed. The individual then pushed a button which released the drugs or chemicals that would end their own life. Two deaths were assisted by means of a device which delivered the euthanizing drugs intravenously. Kevorkian called the device a "Thanatron" ("Death machine", from the Greek thanatos meaning "death").WEB,weblink The Kevorkian Verdict: The Thanatron, Frontline (U.S. TV series), Frontline, Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, May 1996, February 13, 2012, Other people were assisted by a device which employed a gas mask fed by a canister of carbon monoxide, which Kevorkian called the "Mercitron" ("Mercy machine").WEB, Jack Kevorkian's Death Van and the Tech of Assisted Suicide, June 3, 2011, Nicholas, Jackson, TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic Monthly, February 13, 2012,weblink

Criticism and Kevorkian's response

}}According to a report by the Detroit Free Press, 60% of the patients who died with Kevorkian's help were not terminally ill, and at least 13 had not complained of pain. The report further asserted that Kevorkian's counseling was too brief (with at least 19 patients dying less than 24 hours after first meeting Kevorkian) and lacked a psychiatric exam in at least 19 cases, 5 of which involved people with histories of depression, though Kevorkian was sometimes alerted that the patient was unhappy for reasons other than their medical condition. In 1992, Kevorkian himself wrote that it is always necessary to consult a psychiatrist when performing assisted suicides because a person's "mental state is [...] of paramount importance."Cheyfitz, Kirk (March 3, 1997). "Suicide Machine, Part 1: Kevorkian rushes to fulfill his clients' desire to die" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608173811weblink |date=June 8, 2011 }}. Detroit Free Press. Archived May 26, 2007. The report also stated that Kevorkian failed to refer at least 17 patients to a pain specialist after they complained of chronic pain and sometimes failed to obtain a complete medical record for his patients, with at least three autopsies of suicides Kevorkian had assisted with showing the person who committed suicide to have no physical sign of disease. Rebecca Badger, a patient of Kevorkian's and a mentally troubled drug abuser, had been mistakenly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The report also stated that Janet Adkins, Kevorkian's first euthanasia patient, had been chosen without Kevorkian ever speaking to her, only with her husband, and that when Kevorkian first met Adkins two days before her assisted suicide he "made no real effort to discover whether Ms. Adkins wished to end her life," as the Michigan Court of Appeals put it in a 1995 ruling upholding an order against Kevorkian's activity. According to The Economist: "Studies of those who sought out Dr. Kevorkian, however, suggest that though many had a worsening illness... it was not usually terminal. Autopsies showed five people had no disease at all... Little over a third were in pain. Some presumably suffered from no more than hypochondria or depression."NEWS,weblink Jack Kevorkian, champion of voluntary euthanasia, died on June 3rd, aged 83, The Economist, June 9, 2011, webCitation.org,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110613030915weblink">weblink June 13, 2011, dead, In response, Kevorkian's attorney Geoffrey Fieger published an essay stating, "I've never met any doctor who lived by such exacting guidelines as Kevorkian... [H]e published them in an article for the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry in 1992. Last year he got a committee of doctors, the Physicians of Mercy, to lay down new guidelines, which he scrupulously follows." However, Fieger stated that Kevorkian found it difficult to follow his "exacting guidelines" because of "persecution and prosecution", adding, "[H]e's proposed these guidelines saying this is what ought to be done. These are not to be done in times of war, and we're at war."In a 2010 interview with Sanjay Gupta, Kevorkian stated an objection to the status of assisted suicide in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. At that time, only in those three states was assisted suicide legal in the United States, and then only for terminally ill patients. To Gupta, Kevorkian stated, "What difference does it make if someone is terminal? We are all terminal."NEWS,weblink Kevorian: "I have no regrets", CNN, June 14, 2010, June 4, 2011, In his view, a patient had to be suffering but did not have to be terminally ill to be assisted in committing suicide. However, he also said in that same interview that he declined four out of every five assisted suicide requests, on the grounds that the patient needed more treatment or medical records had to be checked.NEWS,weblink 'Dr. Death's' view on life, CNN, June 14, 2010, June 4, 2011, In 2011, disability rights and anti-legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia group Not Dead Yet spoke out against Kevorkian, citing potentially concerning sentiments he expressed in his published writing.WEB,weblink A little bit about the REAL Jack Kevorkian – In His Own Words, June 7, 2011, On page 214 of Prescription: Medicide, the Goodness of Planned Death, Kevorkian wrote that assisting "suffering or doomed persons [to] kill themselves" was "merely the first step, an early distasteful professional obligation... What I find most satisfying is the prospect of making possible the performance of invaluable experiments or other beneficial medical acts under conditions that this first unpleasant step can help establish{{snd}}in a [portmanteau] word obitiatry." In a journal article titled "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death", Kevorkian also detailed anesthetizing, experimenting on, and utilizing the organs of a disabled newborn as a token of "daring and highly imaginative research" that would be possible "beyond the constraints of traditional but outmoded, hopelessly inadequate, and essentially irrelevant ethical codes now sustained for the most part by vacuous sentimental reverence".

Art and music

(File:Jack Kevorkian Organ Concert program.jpg|thumb|Concert program from Jack Kevorkian's 1996 concert)Kevorkian was a jazz musician and composer. (A Very Still Life|The Kevorkian Suite: A Very Still Life) was a 1997 limited-release CD of 5,000 copies from the 'Lucid Subjazz' label. It features Kevorkian on the flute and organ playing his own works with "The Morpheus Quintet". It was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly online as "weird" but "good-natured".Essex, Andrew (December 26, 1997). "Death Mettle" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727062105weblink |date=July 27, 2013 }}. Entertainment Weekly. As of 1997, 1,400 units had been sold. Kevorkian wrote all the songs but one; the album was reviewed in jazzreview.com as "very much grooviness" except for one tune, with "stuff in between that's worthy of multiple spins"."Featured Artist: Jack Kevorkian and Morpheus Quintet – CD Title: A Very Still Life" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220011218weblink |date=December 20, 2010 }}. JazzReview.com.The first public performance of the complete classical organ works by Jack Kevorkian was by Craig Rifel in a live concertWEB,weblink Jack Kevorkian Performs in Concert – Waterford Michigan 1996, Primeau, Productions, March 29, 2012, Vimeo, on January 30, 1996, at Central United Methodist Church in Waterford, Michigan, including Kevorkian's Prelude & Fugue in E-flat, Pipe Dream, Sonata in D, Passacaglia on B-A-C-H, Pastorale & Fugue in B-Flat, and Fantasy & Fugue in C. In 1999, the Geneva-based self-determination society EXIT commissioned David Woodard to orchestrate wind settings of Kevorkian's organ works.Woodard, D., "Musica letitiae comes medicina dolorum", trans. S. Zeitz, Der Freund, Nr. 7, March 2006, pp. 34–41.He was also an oil painter. His work tended toward the grotesque and surreal, and he had created pieces of symbolic art, such as one "of a child eating the flesh off a decomposing corpse". Of his known works, six were made available in the 1990s for print release. The Ariana Gallery in Royal Oak, Michigan, is the exclusive distributor of Kevorkian's artwork. The original oil prints are not for release.PRESS RELEASE, The Kevorkian Verdict: The Ariana Gallery,weblink Frontline (U.S. TV series), Frontline, Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, May 1996, February 13, 2012, Sludge metal band Acid Bath used his painting "For He is Raised" as the cover art for their 1996 album Paegan Terrorism Tactics.WEB,weblink Acid Bath – Paegan Terrorism Tactics Remastered, Reissued, August 10, 2010, Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Brave Words, June 4, 2011, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121108061239weblink">weblink November 8, 2012, In 2011, his paintings became the center of a legal entanglement between his sole heir and the Armenian Library and Museum of America.WEB, Kevorkian Estate To Auction Disputed Paintings,weblink ClickonDetroit.com, WDIV-TV, November 2, 2011, February 13, 2012, January 30, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120130105333weblink">weblink dead,

Trials, conviction, and imprisonment

{{Euthanasia}}Kevorkian was tried four times for assisting suicides between May 1994 and June 1997. With the assistance of Fieger, Kevorkian was acquitted three times. The fourth trial ended in a mistrial. The trials helped Kevorkian gain public support for his cause. After Oakland County prosecutor Richard Thompson lost a primary election to a Republican challenger,NEWS,weblink Prosecutor has last shot at Dr. Death, Lewiston Maine, Sun Journal (Lewiston), Sun Journal, 3A, November 1, 1996, Thompson attributed the loss in part to the declining public support for the prosecution of Kevorkian and its associated legal expenses.NEWS, Davis, Robert, August 8, 1996,weblink Assisted Suicide, USA Today, 3A, August 3, 2010, Thompson, the first Oakland County prosecutor in 24 years to lose an election, agreed that the controversy clearly was an issue in his defeat., June 24, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120624221338weblink">weblink dead, In the November 22, 1998, broadcast of CBS News' 60 Minutes, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, 52, who was in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. After Youk provided his fully informed consent (a sometimes complex legal determination made in this case by editorial consensus) on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered Thomas Youk a lethal injection. This was highly significant, as all of his earlier clients had reportedly completed the process themselves. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out mercy killings. Youk's family described the lethal injection as humane, not murder.On November 25, 1998, Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder and the delivery of a controlled substance (administering the lethal injection to Thomas Youk).EPISODE,weblink The Kevorian Verdict: A Chronology, Frontline (U.S. TV series), Frontline, Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, May 1996, February 13, 2012, Because Kevorkian's license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years previously, he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance.On March 26, 1999, a jury began deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of Kevorkian.NEWS, Claiborne, William, Kevorkian, Arguing Own Defense, Asks Jury to Disregard Law,weblink March 26, 2021, Washington Post, March 26, 1999, He had discharged his attorneys and proceeded through the trial representing himself, a decision he later regretted. The judge ordered a criminal defense attorney to remain available at trial as standby counsel for information and advice. Inexperienced in law but persisting in his efforts to represent himself, Kevorkian encountered great difficulty in presenting his evidence and arguments. He was not able to call any witnesses to the stand as the judge did not deem the testimony of any of his witnesses relevant.WEB, 71 U. Colo. L. Rev., 789, Pro Se Criminal Defendant, Standby Counsel, and the Judge: A Proposal for Better-Defined Roles, The, Williams, Marie Higgins,weblink 2000, After a two-day trial, the Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree homicide. Judge Jessica Cooper sentenced Kevorkian to serve 10–25 years in prison and told him:{{blockquote|This is a court of law and you said you invited yourself here to take a final stand. But this trial was not an opportunity for a referendum. The law prohibiting euthanasia was specifically reviewed and clarified by the Michigan Supreme Court several years ago in a decision involving your very own cases, sir. So the charge here should come as no surprise to you. You invited yourself to the wrong forum. Well, we are a nation of laws, and we are a nation that tolerates differences of opinion because we have a civilized and a nonviolent way of resolving our conflicts that weighs the law and adheres to the law. We have the means and the methods to protest the laws with which we disagree. You can criticize the law, you can write or lecture about the law, you can speak to the media or petition the voters.}}Kevorkian was sent to a prison in Coldwater, Michigan, to serve his sentence.NEWS,weblink Statement from Judge to Kevorkian, Jessica Cooper, The New York Times, April 14, 1999, After his conviction (and subsequent losses on appeal), Kevorkian was denied parole repeatedly until 2007.NEWS, Egan, Paul, December 14, 2006,weblinkweblink" title="archive.today/20100804124141weblink">weblink dead, August 4, 2010, After 8 years, Kevorkian to go free, The Detroit News, Detnews.com, February 13, 2012, In an MSNBC interview aired on September 29, 2005, Kevorkian said that if he were granted parole, he would not resume directly helping people die and would restrict himself to campaigning to have the law changed. On December 22, 2005, Kevorkian was denied parole by a board on the count of 7–2 recommending not to give parole.WEB,weblink Rita Cosby, September 29, 2005, NBC News, 'Dr. Death' speaks out from jail, Reportedly terminally ill with Hepatitis C, which he contracted in the 1960s, Kevorkian was expected to die within a year in May 2006. After applying for a pardon, parole, or commutation by the parole board and Governor Jennifer Granholm, he was paroled for good behavior on June 1, 2007. He had spent eight years and two and a half months in prison.NEWS,weblink March 12, 2008, Jack Kevorkian Plans Run For Congress, CBS News, cbsnews.com, AP, WEB,weblink Dying 'Dr. Death' Has Second Thoughts About Assisting Suicides, ABC News, June 1, 2007, Lara Setrakian, June 16, 2009, Kevorkian was on parole for two years, under the conditions that he would not help anyone else die, or provide care for anyone older than 62 or disabled.NEWS,weblink Kevorkian released from prison after 8 years, NBC News, June 1, 2007, June 16, 2009, Kevorkian said he would abstain from assisting any more terminal patients with death, and his role in the matter would strictly be to persuade states to change their laws on assisted suicide. He was also forbidden by the rules of his parole from commenting about assisted suicide procedure.NEWS,weblink Kevorkian criticizes attack on right-to-die group, mlive.com, Michigan Live, February 27, 2009, AP, NEWS,weblink February 26, 2009, Four arrested in 2 states in assisted-suicide probe, CNN, February 13, 2012, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120330221622weblink">weblink March 30, 2012, mdy-all,

Activities after his release from prison

File:RaffiJackMayer (cropped).JPG|thumb|left|Kevorkian (center) answering questions at the University of California, Los Angeles with his lawyer Mayer Morganroth (right) and the former Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi HovannisianRaffi HovannisianKevorkian gave a number of lectures upon his release. He lectured at universities such as the University of Florida,WEB,weblink Kevorkian pushes for euthanasia, Stripling, Jack, Gainesville Sun, January 16, 2008, June 16, 2009, Nova Southeastern University,WEB,weblink Jack Kevorkian unveils U.S. flag altered with swastika, Ba Tran, Andrew, February 5, 2009, Sun-Sentinel, October 30, 2009, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090917172814weblink">weblink September 17, 2009, and the University of California, Los Angeles.WEB,weblink Right-to-die activist Dr. Jack Kevorkian will share his ideology of death and story of life during Royce Hall lecture, Strutner, Suzy, Daily Bruin, January 11, 2011, January 11, 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110606120146weblink">weblink June 6, 2011, dead, His lectures were not limited to the topic of euthanasia; he also discussed such topics as tyranny, the criminal justice system, politics, the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Armenian culture. He appeared on the Fox News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto on September 2, 2009, to discuss health care reform.On April 15 and 16, 2010, Kevorkian appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°.NEWS, Video: Mr. Kevorkian on physician-assisted suicide, CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, April 15, 2010, Flash video, July 11, 2010,weblink Cooper asked, "You are saying doctors play God all the time?" Kevorkian said: "Of course. Any time you interfere with a natural process, you are playing God."NEWS, Mr. Kevorkian Responds to Question about Playing God, CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, April 16, 2010, Flash video, July 11, 2010,weblink Director Barry Levinson and actors Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman, who appeared in You Don't Know Jack, a film based on Kevorkian's life, were interviewed alongside Kevorkian. Kevorkian was again interviewed by Cavuto on Your World on April 19, 2010, regarding the movie and Kevorkian's world view. You Don't Know Jack premiered April 24, 2010, on HBO.WEB,weblink You Don't Know Jack, Flash site, HBO, 2010, The film premiered April 14 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. Kevorkian walked the red carpet alongside Al Pacino, who portrayed him in the film.WEB,weblink Premiere of You Don't Know Jack at Ziegfeld Theatre, Image gallery, Day Life.com (Getty Images), April 14, 2010, July 11, 2010, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100725052120weblink">weblink July 25, 2010, Pacino received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his portrayal and personally thanked Kevorkian, who was in the audience, upon receiving both of these awards. Kevorkian stated that the film "brings tears to my eyes – and I lived through it".WEB,weblink A New Life for Dr. Death, Tara Krieger, November 2, 2010, February 13, 2012,

2008 congressional race

{{See also|2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Michigan}}On March 12, 2008, Kevorkian announced plans to run for United States Congress to represent Michigan's 9th congressional district as an independent against eight-term congressman Joe Knollenberg (R-Bloomfield Hills), former Michigan Lottery commissioner and state senator Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township), Adam Goodman (L-Royal Oak) and Douglas Campbell (G-Ferndale). The race had already garnered national attention due to Democrats targeting the historically Republican district based in Oakland County, which Knollenberg barely won in 2006 against a little-known opponent. The district would suffer some of the worst brunt of the Great Recession due to declines in Detroit's automotive industry. Upon Kevorkian's entry into the race, one analyst viewed him as a potential spoiler to Peters' candidacy.NEWS,weblink Kevorkian plans congressional run, March 13, 2008, msnbc.com, April 16, 2017, en, Ultimately, Kevorkian received 8,987 votes (2.6% of the vote) in the election, in which Peters defeated the incumbent Knollenberg by a nine-percent margin.WEB,weblink Official Michigan General Candidate Listing, Michigan Department of State, November 25, 2008, May 9, 2019, Peters would eventually serve three terms in Congress before making a successful run for the United States Senate.{{Election box begin | title=2008 General Election – Michigan's 9th Congressional DistrictWEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081107080940weblink">weblink dead, November 7, 2008, 2008 Unofficial Michigan General Election Results – 9th District Representative in Congress 2 Year Term (1) Position, }}{{Election box candidate with party link| }}{{Election box candidate with party link| }}{{Election box candidate with party link| }}{{Election box candidate with party link| }}{{Election box candidate with party link| }}{{Election box gain with party link| winner = Democratic Party (United States)| loser = Republican Party (United States)| swing =}}{{Election box end}}

Illness and death

Kevorkian had struggled with kidney problems for years.NEWS, Dr. Jack Kevorkian dead at 83, June 3, 2011,weblink CNN, He was diagnosed with liver cancer, which "may have been caused by hepatitis C," according to his longtime friend Neal Nicol.NEWS, Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian dies, Joe Swickard, Pat Anstett, June 3, 2011, Detroit Free Press, Freep.com,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110605030057weblink">weblink June 5, 2011, Kevorkian was hospitalized on May 18, 2011, with kidney problems and pneumonia. Kevorkian's condition grew rapidly worse and he died from a thrombosis on June 3, 2011, eight days after his 83rd birthday, at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. According to his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, there were no artificial attempts to keep him alive and his death was painless. Kevorkian was buried in White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.NEWS,weblink With video: Politicians, officials and residents remember Kevorkian, June 3, 2011, Detroit Free Press, Freep.com, February 13, 2012, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110608174246weblink">weblink June 8, 2011,

Legacy

Judge Thomas Jackson, who presided over Kevorkian's first murder trial in 1994, commented that he wanted to express sorrow at Kevorkian's death and that the 1994 case was brought under "a badly written law" aimed at Kevorkian, but he attempted to give him "the best trial possible". Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian's lawyer during the 1990s, gave a speech at a press conference in which he stated: "Dr. Jack Kevorkian didn't seek out history, but he made history." Fieger said that Kevorkian revolutionized the concept of suicide by working to help people end their own suffering, because he believed physicians are responsible for alleviating the suffering of patients, even if that meant allowing patients to die.Kevorkian spoke at Presbyterian and Episcopal churches to gain support for euthanasia.WEB, Dr. Death asks parishioners for help in assisted suicide campaign,weblink January 28, 2022, UPI, en, NEWS,weblink Kevorkian Pleads For Legalization Of Assisted Suicide, The Washington Post, February 16, 2022, John Finn, medical director of palliative care at the CatholicWEB,weblink Mission and Values, St. John Health, as a Catholic health ministry, stjohnprovidence.org, 2011, July 27, 2011, St. John's Hospital, said Kevorkian's methods were unorthodox and inappropriate. He added that many of Kevorkian's patients were isolated, lonely, and potentially depressed, and therefore in no state to mindfully choose whether to live or die. Derek Humphry, author of the suicide handbook Final Exit, said Kevorkian was "too obsessed, too fanatical, in his interest in death and suicide to offer direction for the nation".NEWS,weblink Jack Kevorkian sparked a debate on death, June 4, 2011, Detroit Free Press, February 13, 2012, Freep.com, Joe Swickard, Patricia Anstett, L.L. Brasier, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110915113206weblink">weblink September 15, 2011, In a 2015 Retro Report story about Kevorkian's legacy and the Right to Die movement, journalist Jack Lessenberry said Kevorkian "got a national debate going, which I think he then helped stifle by his own outrageous actions".WEB, Wilson, Sianne, A Right to Die?,weblink www.RetroReport.org, Retro Report, July 30, 2015, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160201171735weblink">weblink February 1, 2016, Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, said that Kevorkian "was a major historical figure in modern medicine".WEB,weblink 'U' Medical School alum Dr. Kevorkian dies at 83, July 6, 2011, The Michigan Daily, Brienne Prusak, June 2011, The Catholic Church in Detroit said Kevorkian left behind a "deadly legacy" that denied scores of people their right to humane deaths.NEWS,weblink Archdiocese of Detroit: Kevorkian leaves 'deadly legacy', Detroit Free Press, Freep.com, July 15, 2011, Niraj Warikoo, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110808222525weblink">weblink August 8, 2011, Philip Nitschke, founder and director of right-to-die organization Exit International, said that Kevorkian "moved the debate forward in ways the rest of us can only imagine. He started at a time when it was hardly talked about and got people thinking about the issue. He paid one hell of a price, and that is one of the hallmarks of true heroism."WEB,weblink Jack Kevorkian, Godfather of Right-to Die-Movement, Dies Leaving Controversial Legacy, Susan, Donaldson James, ABC News, June 23, 2011, February 13, 2012, The epitaph on Kevorkian's tombstone reads, "He sacrificed himself for everyone's rights."In 2015, the 1968 Volkswagen Type 2 van in which Jack Kevorkian assisted some of his suicidal patients was bought by paranormal investigator Zak Bagans (from the documentary series Ghost Adventures) for display in his haunted museum in Las Vegas.WEB,weblink Infamous Kevorkian van sold to ghost hunter,

Publications

Books

• BOOK, The Story of Dissection, Kevorkian, Jack, Philosophical Library, 1959, 978-1-258-07746-4,
• BOOK, Medical Research and the Death Penalty: A Dialogue, Kevorkian, Jack, Vantage Books, 1960, 978-0-9602030-1-7,
• BOOK, Beyond Any Kind of God, Kevorkian, Jack, Philosophical Library, 1966, 978-0-8022-0847-7, †
• BOOK, Slimmericks and the Demi-Diet, Kevorkian, Jack, Penumbra, Inc, 1978, 978-0-9602030-0-0, ††
• BOOK, Prescription: Medicide, the Goodness of Planned Death,weblink registration, Kevorkian, Jack, 1991, 978-0-87975-872-1, Prometheus Books, Internet Archive,
• BOOK, glimmerIQs, Kevorkian, Jack, Penumbra, Inc, 2004, 978-0-9602030-7-9,
• BOOK, Amendment IX: Our Cornucopia of Rights, Kevorkian, Jack, 2005, 096020301X, Penumbra, Inc,
• BOOK, When the People Bubble POPs, Kevorkian, Jack, World Audience, Inc, 2010, 978-1-935444-91-6,

† = Later heavily revised and incorporated into glimmerIQs†† = Later incorporated in abridged form into glimmerIQs

• = Revised and distributed in 2009 by World Audience, Inc.

Selected journal articles

• JOURNAL, Kevorkian J, Opinions on capital punishment, executions and medical science, Medicine and Law, 4, 6, 515–533, 1985, 4094526,
• JOURNAL, Kevorkian J, Capital punishment and organ retrieval, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 136, 12, 1240, 1987, 3580984, 1492232,
• JOURNAL, Kevorkian J, The last fearsome taboo: Medical aspects of planned death, Medicine and Law, 7, 1, 1–14, 1988, 3277000,
• JOURNAL, Kevorkian J, Marketing of human organs and tissues is justified and necessary, Medicine and Law, 7, 6, 557–565, 1989, 2495395,

In culture

• You Don't Know Jack, 2010 film about Jack Kevorkian

See also

• God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, a collection of short fictional interviews written by Kurt Vonnegut
• You Don't Know Jack, a 2010 television film

References

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External links

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• {{NYTtopic|people/k/jack_kevorkian}}
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160201171735weblink">A Right to Die? a documentary from Retro Report
• "Papa" Prell Radio interview with Kevorkian. (MP3, 15 minutes). weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100625025258weblink">Prell archive at Radio Horror Hosts website.
• WEB,weblink Court TV Case Files â€“ Trial coverage., CourtTV.com,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070208133712weblink">weblink February 8, 2007, August 3, 2010,
• "The Kevorkian Verdict: The Life and Legacy of the Suicide Doctor" Frontline; PBS.org â€“ with timeline and other info.
• Kevorkian's Art Work Frontline; PBS.org.
• WEB, Unsung American-Armenian Hero Kevorkian Coming Home To Die, James Donahue website, tripod.com, May 2007,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070608214510weblink">weblink June 8, 2007,
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100225065113weblink">Kevorkian on law and the constitution during an appearance at Harvard Law School (Harvard Law Record)
• Michigan Department of Corrections record for Jack Kevorkian {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113205313weblink |date=January 13, 2011 }}
• {{Find a Grave|70771866}}

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