Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was born in May 26, 1928. He was an American pathologist, euthanasia activist, painter, author, composer and instrumentalist. He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1945, and graduated from medical school in 1952. He specialized in pathology, the study of a corpse to determine the cause of death. He spent 15 months in the army during the Korean War, which interrupted his career to be a doctor. When returning, he started his residency at the Pontiac General Hospital in Detroit. There he earned the nickname "Dr. Death" because he liked to take pictures of the eyes of patients at the time they died. He thought this would benefit the doctor to decide whether to resuscitate the patient or not. AWAKENING OF INTERESTS
In 1958 the curiosity aroused his interest in knowing about the history of the autopsy in his country of residence. He discovered that his Armenian ancestors conducted experiments with those facing death roll. He did some research in prisons, and tested new medicines and cures on sentenced prisoners, which would bring the benefit of saving money. The boss later asks him to give up his research, and Jack quits.
Another interest of Jack shone in Pontiac General Hospital when he learns that a Russian doctor experiments with blood transfusion from corpses to living bodies. Jack published an article about this in Military Medicine, thinking that this process could be useful in the Vietnam battlefield, but the government rejected the idea.
His interest in the Assisted Suicide method begins when he first saw a young woman dying slowly because of cancer. He thought that the most ethical and least painful way she could die was by an Assisted Suicide. Jack begins to write many articles about this subject when he realize that the Netherlands were using Euthanasia on patients who were about to die. These articles were so intense that only Germany published them. In 1989 he built his first death machine through junkyards as he shopped at garage sales. He called the machine "Thanatron", which means in Greek "death machine". He only spent $30 dollars to create it.
JACK'S WAY His license was revoked in November 1991. In June 1997 Jack had been prosecuted for four cases of death, but was acquitted. It was in 1998 that Jack was charged with a felony for causing the death of Thomas Youk, a 52 aged victim of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better know as Lou Gehrig's Disease. ALS gradually weakens nerves to muscles, causing difficulty in breathing, paralysis, and finally death. This time Kevorkian was charged with first degree murder, because instead of allowing the patient to inject himself, he injected the patient. Jack decided to represent himself rather than allowing his lawyer. Jack claimed to assist at least 130 patients to that end. A lot of the Assisted Suicides for patients that he made were done inside his old rusty van. On April 13, 1999 he was found guilty of second degree murder. Kevorkian served eight years of a 10 to 25 years in prison sentence. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, conditioned not to offer suicide advices to any person.
DEATH
He died on June 3, 2011 from Thrombosis. His death was slow and painful. There were no intentions to keep himself alive with any substance or to have a quick death with an assisted suicide.
"Well, let's take what people think is a dignified death. Christ was that a dignified death? Do you think it's dignified to hang from wood with nails through your hands and feet bleeding, hang for three or four days slowly dying, with people jabbing spears into your side, and people jeering you? Do you think that's dignified? Not by a long shot. Had Christ died in my van with people around Him who loved Him, the way it was, it would be far more dignified. In my rusty van."
-Dr. Jack Kevorkian - July 29, 1996
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
1998: Thomas Youk assisted suicide by Kevorkian on tapeADDITIONAL RESOURCES
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4462047n
"You Don't Know Me Jack" (HBO Movie, 2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132623/
REFERENCES
Michigan state university. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.msu.edu/~wrigh196/atl/kevbio.html?iframe=true&width=80%&height=80%
Patients rights council. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.focusonals.com/thomas_youk.htm
Written by Israel Oliveras
Written by Israel Oliveras
