Jack Kevorkian: The Death of Dr. Death

Dr. Jack Kevorkian died this morning at the age of 83, according to a Beaumont Hospital representative. The hospital reported that Kevorkian, in ill health for several years, suffered from a pulmonary thrombosis- a blood clot that dislodged from his leg and lodged in his heart.

Kevorkian was best known as a right-to-die advocate. He assisted in numerous assisted suicides of terminally-ill patients throughout his career and spent eight years in jail beginning in 1999 on second-degree murder charges in the suicide of an ALS sufferer. Kevorkian designed several apparatuses that allowed patients with limited mobility to push a button to deliver a lethal dose of either drugs or carbon monoxide. Although Kevorkian had been charged several times in his career, charges had always been dropped prior to 1999 because of fuzzy laws on suicide and its assistance. The case he was convicted of was different. Kevorkian injected the drugs himself because the patient was unable to operate the machine.

Jack Kevorkian brought out intense debate on both sides of the right-to-die debate. Prior to his highly-public suicides, it was an issue that wasn't discussed in the public realm. Kevorkian's stance was that people deserved dignity at the end of their lives and they had a right to choose the time and method of their death. Opponents argued that it minimized the lives of the ill and the elderly and that they might feel pushed towards ending their lives to relieve the burden on others. Groups like the Hemlock Society, whose founder, Derek Humphrey, wrote the book Final Exit, supported Kevorkian's efforts at reforming the laws around assisted suicide.

Kevorkian suffered immense professional and personal backlash for his efforts to help people die with dignity. He lost his medical license and his personal freedom for the cause. Whether one agrees with the cause itself, Kevorkian's commitment to it is commendable. His ultimate impact on changes in public policy and state law are less clear. To date, Oregon , Washington and Montana have laws in place allowing assisted suicide in limited circumstances. Many states still have no laws on the books that address the issue. The rest have laws specifically prohibiting assisted suicide and putting it into the same category as other murders. Kevorkian's writings and speeches still figure into the debate today.

Rather than being Dr. Death, he was truly Dr. Dignity.