Jack Kevorkian aka “Dr. Death”
Kevorkian, dubbed as “Dr. Death” started his fascination about euthanasia or “mercy killing” in the late 1980s after watching a woman dying of cancer. He retired from pathology work and in 1989 he build his suicide device made from scrap parts he bought from garage sales and hardware stores.
He started advertising in newspapers as a physician consultant for “death counseling. In 1990 he assisted the suicide of his first client Janet Adkins diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was charged with murder but charges were dropped, but in 1991 his license to practice medicine in Michigan was revoked.
Kevorkian only assisted by attaching the device to the individual, the individual then flip the switch to release the drugs which will end his or her own life.
He later used canisters of carbon monoxide to other people wherein after his patients remove the clamp it will release the gas to the face mask.
All in all Kevorkian assisted 130 terminally ill people to end their lives.
Kevorkian has escaped numerous trials for assisting suicide, but in 1998 he gave a tape to “60 Minutes” showing him administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, 52, suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, paved the way for a 10–25 years in prison in jail. During the trial, Kevorkian discharge his attorneys and represented himself.
He was released on June 1, 2007 for good behavior.
His life story was made into an HBO film “You Don’t Know Jack” starring Al Pacino. The film was nominated for 15 Emmys and won 2: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Movie or Mini-Series for Al Pacino, and Outstanding Writing for a Movie or Mini-series for Adam Mazer. Al Pacino also won a Golden Globe and an SAG Award for his performance on the film.
Kevorkian was also a musician and an oil painter but his passion was really on assisted suicide. He was quoted as saying, “My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death”, the paper quoted him as saying. “My aim was to end suffering. It’s got to be decriminalized.”
