- The Real Jack Kevorkian
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- Since the death of his first "patient,"
the media has frequently portrayed Jack Kevorkian as a retired pathologist
whose only goal is to help end the unbearable suffering of terminal illness.
The facts tell a different story.
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- How did Jack Kevorkian become well known?
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- He actively sought publicity for years
before achieving it by his first "patient's" death.
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- His search for a first "patient"
began in 1987 when he began placing ads in the newspaper classified section
(1) and handing out business cards that read:
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- "Jack Kevorkian, MD... Bioethics
and Obitiatry... Special Death Counseling. By Appointment Only."(2)
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- In 1989 a medical society publication
turned him down when he wanted to advertise his death machine (3) and local
newspapers rejected his attempt to place a display ad, (4) but the rejections
led to news reports that gave him coverage previously lacking.
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- He "knew it would take a 'bulls-eye'"
to establish his "new specialty." (5) By the Fall of 1989, he
was screening possible "patients" with an eye to their publicity
value.
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- One rejected "patient" was
a woman with multiple sclerosis who, he explained, was "not a suitable
candidate for the first use of the Mercitron [Kevorkian's death machine]"
because her situation wouldn't garner the favorable coverage he needed
for the "initial event." (6)
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- He promised that hers would be the second
death, but her relatives heard what was going on and "whisked her
off." (7) Kevorkian continued his quest.
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- In March 1990, a Detroit paper carried
an article stating:
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- "Applications are being accepted.
Oppressed by a fatal disease, a severe handicap, a crippling deformity?
Write Box 261, Royal Oak, Mich. 48068-0261. Show him proper compelling
medical evidence that you should die, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian will help
you kill yourself, free of charge." (8)
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- On June 4, 1990, he tested his machine
for the first time at a campsite near Detroit. As a result of that test,
a 54 year-old Oregon woman lay dead in the back of his rusty, old Volkswagen
van. And Jack Kevorkian, with her blood spattered on his hands and clothing,
was on his way to becoming known around the world.(9)
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- What medical experience and training
does Jack Kevorkian have?
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- His professional record is notable for
its lack of any credentials which would qualify him to deal with depressed
or dying people.
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- When asked about his medical career,
Kevorkian said:
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- "Well, it's never been going well.
I had an erratic practice...I had so many controversial topics on my resume,
that people were just frightened to death of me. And it was hopeless to
get a position." (10)
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- His professional experience has been
primarily in the field of pathology (dealing with dead bodies and body
parts). (11)
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- With the exception of his residency and
his military service in the 1950s, he has had no clinical experience with
live patients. (12)
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- He has no training or expertise in diagnosing
or treating depression, and is completely lacking in any education or experience
in the fields of internal medicine, geriatrics, psychiatry and neurology.
(13)
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- He has admitted that he is not qualified
to practice medicine, even as a general practitioner. (14) Yet he has said
that the decision about who is worthy to use his death machine is based
on his medical expertise. (15)
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- He graduated from the University of Michigan
Medical School in 1952, did his internship at the Henry Ford Hospital,
(16) and his residency in pathology at the University of Michigan and at
Pontiac General Hospital. (17)
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- He worked as a general pathologist at
Pontiac General Hospital from 1960-1966. The circumstances of his leaving
are unclear. Although he said under oath that he'd never been asked to
leave a hospital, he later said he had been fired from Pontiac General.
(18)
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- He then went to Wyandotte General Hospital
where he worked for five months, (19) after which he set up a computerized
diagnostic clinic that failed in about a year. He blamed the failure on
other doctors who wouldn't refer anyone to his clinic. (20)
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- In the 1970s he bounced back and forth
between Michigan and California. During this time he worked at four different
hospitals and took a 2 1/2 year break from the medical profession. (21)
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- Although he calls himself a "retired"
pathologist, he has not held a full-time job for years. (22) His unemployment
has been more accurately described a "forced retirement." (23)
He was even turned down for a job as a paramedic in 1989. (24)
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- He does not have a license to practice
medicine. His Michigan license was suspended in 1991 and his California
license was suspended in 1993. (25) According to the California Attorney
General's office, Kevorkian is "fundamentally unfit to practice medicine."(26)
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- Isn't Jack Kevorkian only trying to end
suffering?
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- No. In fact, Kevorkian himself has made
it very clear that that's not what his activities are all about:
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- He has specifically stated that alleviation
of agonizing pain and torment is only a "minor benefit" in his
overall scheme of things. (27)
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- His "ultimate aim," as he described
it, is "not simply to help suffering or doomed persons kill themselves."
That activity, he said, "is merely the first step, an early distasteful
professional obligation" which will lead to his goal. (28)
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- What is Jack Kevorkian's goal?
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- The establishment of deadly human experimentation
as a medical specialty is Kevorkian's goal.
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- "What I find most satisfying,"
he has said, "is the prospect of making possible the performance of
invaluable experiments" and other undefined "medical acts."
(29)
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- He has described a process by which "subjects,"
including infants, children, even the mentally incompetent, would be used
for experiments "of any kind or complexity." (30) Then, if the
subject's body is alive after experimentation, "death may be induced"
by such means as "removal of organs for transplantation" or "a
lethal dose of a new or untested drug to be administered by an official
executioner."(31)
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- Infants, children and others incapable
of giving direct or informed consent are among the "potential candidates
for the humane killing known as euthanasia." He calls this "suicide
by proxy." (32)
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- He has expressed his desire to assist
in the deaths of 20 or 30 year-olds who are not ill, but who "just
don't want to live anymore."(33)
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- He has said he wants to establish death
houses run by "untouchables" where even an 18 year-old could
go. (34) Under his supervision, he claims, the "untouchables"
would be "incorruptible." (35)
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- He has even drawn up plans for these
death centers. Using Michigan as a model for the nation, he has divided
the state into eleven killing zones.(36)
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- All killing...which would be considered
a medical specialty called "obitiatry" (from the word "obituary")...would
be controlled through "zone headquarters."(37)
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- The "practitioner" of medical
killing would be called an "obitiatrist"...literally "doctor
of death." (38)
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- He has proposed a "auction market
for available organs" (39) taken from "subjects" who are
"hopelessly crippled by arthritis or malformations." (40) Part
of the money from the dead disabled person's auctioned organs could go
to relatives whose financial burdens would be eased and "their standard
of living enhanced."(41)
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- How do Jack Kevorkian's "patients"
die?
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- Of the twenty-five "patients"
who died between June 1990 and August 1995, two died of lethal amounts
of intravenous drugs. The remaining twenty-three were gassed to death with
carbon monoxide. (42)
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- Kevorkian described his original death
machine in 1989:
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- "It's execution by lethal injection,
except you do it yourself."(43)
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- "It's dignified, humane and painless,
and the patient can do it in the comfort of their own home anytime they
want. "(44)
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- There have been several death machines
which Kevorkian and his attorney have called a "killing machine,"
"self-execution machine," "mercy machine, " "Thanatron,"
"Mercitron."
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- Model No. 1 (used for the first "patient")
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- Made from scrap aluminum, a toy car that
Kevorkian had torn apart for its pieces, and other scraps scavenged from
garage sales and flea markets, the contraption was a metal pole with bottles
containing drug solutions. (45)
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- A needle was inserted into the arm and
the flow of harmless saline started. After a switch was tripped, the solution
of sedatives was to begin, followed automatically by a paralyzing agent
and potassium chloride which was to result in heart slippage and death.
(46) (The heart was monitored by cardiography electrodes on the victim's
arms and legs.)(47)
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- The machine did not, in fact, work as
Kevorkian had planned. Death occurred earlier than he contended. (48)
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- Kevorkian later said that if the chemicals
hadn't killed his first "patient," he was prepared to "finish
it myself." (49)
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- MODEL NO. 2 (used for the second "patient")
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- Kevorkian said the machine was "pretty
much like my first one...any high school physics student can put it together...but
it has fewer moving parts."(50)
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- Drug solutions did not include the paralyzing
agent. (51)
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- MODEL NO. 3 (variations of which were
used for "patients" number 3 through 25)
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- Consisted of a tightly fitted mask placed
over the face, connected by tubing to a canister of carbon monoxide gas.
(52)
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- When activated, the flow of carbon monoxide
began, resulting in death from carbon monoxide poisoning which, Kevorkian
has said, "often produced a rosy color that makes the victim look
better as a corpse." (53)
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- Doesn't Jack Kevorkian limit his services
to the terminally ill who are not depressed?
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- Definitely not.
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- "Terminally ill," as defined
in most proposals to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, means a
life expectancy of six months or less. (54) Yet the majority of Jack Kevorkian's
"patients" did not fall within the meaning of "terminally
ill." (Kevorkian has defined terminal illness as "any disease
that curtails life even for a day." (55) His attorney, Geoffrey Fieger,
has written, "Any disease that curtails life-span is terminal."(56)
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- He has testified that, if a person is
depressed over illness or disability, "the depression becomes irrelevant.
"(57)
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- He has written that the deaths of sick
or disabled people would benefit society:
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- "[T]he voluntary self-elimination
of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives taken collectively
can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare." (58)
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- When questioned by Time magazine, Kevorkian
said that doctors will decide who dies:
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- Q. How do you decide whom to help? Does
the patient have to suffer from a life-threatening illness?
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- A. No, of course not. And it doesn't
have to be painful, as with quadriplegia. But your life quality has to
be nil.
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- Q. And who decides that?
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- A. That's up to physicians, and nobody
can gainsay what doctors say. It all boils down to the integrity of the
doctors....
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- Q. What about people who suffer emotionally
and want to die?
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- A. ...Once this gets going as a practice
for physically debilitated people, the psychiatrists are going to have
a whopping job because it is going to be up to them to decide how this
fits into their field. (59)
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- Twenty-seven people died from June 1990
through January 1996 using one of Jack Kevorkian's machines.
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- Janet Adkins, 54, 6/4/90 Stanely Ball,
82, 2/4/93Donald O'Keefe, 73, 9/9/93Marjorie Wantz, 58, 10/23/91Mary Biernat,
73, 2/4/93 Merian Frederick, 72, 10/22/93 Sherry Miller, 43, 10/23/91 Elaine
Goldbaum, 47, 2/8/93 Ali Khalili, 61, 11/22/93 Susan Williams, 52, 5/15/92
Hugh Gale, 70, 2/15/93 Margaret Garrish, 72, 11/26/94 Lois Hawes, 52, 9/26/92
Jonathon Grenz, 44, 2/18/93 John Evans, 78, 5/8/95 Catherine Andreyev,
46, 11/23/92 Martha Ruwart, 41, 2/18/93 Nicholas Loving, 27, 5/12/95 Marcella
Lawrence, 67, 12/15/92 Ronald Mansur, 54, 5/16/93 Erika Garcellano, 60,
6/26/95 Marguerite Tate, 70, 12/15/92 Thomas Hyde, 30, 8/4/93 Esther Cohan,
46, 8/21/95 Jack Miller, 53, 1/20/93 Patricia Cashman, 58, 11/08/95 Linda
Henslee, 48, 01/29/96
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- Published reports and court records indicate
that the majority of Kevorkian's twenty-seven "patients" did
not fall within the generally described category of "terminally ill"
(life expectancy of six months or less). Some reportedly could have lived
for many more months or even for many years.
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- In addition to illness, other conditions
in their lives may have contributed to the decisions of some to die. For
example: Elaine Goldbaum had financial problems and feared losing her house;
(60) Jonathon Grenz was said to be depressed and "overwhelmed with
grief" following his mother's death. (61) Ali Khalili, who drove his
car from Chicago to Michigan for his health had reportedly told a doctor
that "the quality of his life had been compromised by an anxiety state.
"(62)
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- Aren't we really talking about "death
with dignity"?
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- No. The first three deaths provide an
example.
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- JANET ADKINS, age 54, died 6/4/90, of
a lethal dose of drugs.
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- She was in the early stages of Alzheimer's,
and her own doctor said she had at least ten years of productive life ahead
of her. (63)
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