who was Dr.Kevorcian?

Answer 1

Jack Kevorkian, M.D. (born Pontiac, Michigan, May 20, 1928) is a controversial American pathologist. He is most noted for publicly championing a terminal patient's "right to die" and claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He is famous for his quote "dying is not a crime." Imprisoned in 1999, he was serving out a 10 to 25 year prison sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, of Oakland County, Michigan. He was paroled early in December 2006, due in part to a terminal illness from which he was suffering.

Kevorkian started advertising in Detroit newspapers in 1987 as a physician consultant for "death counseling." Between 1990 and 1998, Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of nearly one hundred terminally ill people, according to his lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. In each of these cases, the individuals themselves took the final action which resulted in their own deaths: voluntary euthanasia. Dr. Kevorkian allegedly assisted only by attaching the individual to a device that he had made. The individual then pushed a button which released the drugs or chemicals that would end his or her own life. Two deaths were assisted by means of a device which employed a needle and delivered the euthanizing drugs mechanically through an IV. Kevorkian called it a "Thanatron" (death machine). Other patients were assisted by a device which employed a gas mask fed by a canister of carbon monoxide which was called "Mercitron" (mercy machine). This became necessary because Kevorkian's medical license had been revoked after the first two deaths, and he could no longer get the substances required for "Thanatron".

On the November 23, 1998 broadcast of 60 Minutes, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which featured the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, an adult male with full decisional capacity who was in the final stages of ALS. After Youk provided his fully-informed consent on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian administered a lethal injection. This was novel to other patients as Kevorkian administered the injection himself as opposed to having Youk complete the process. This incited the district attorney to bring murder charges against him, claiming that Kevorkian single-handedly caused the death. Kevorkian filmed the procedure and the death and submitted it for broadcast on 60 Minutes.

During much of this period, Kevorkian was represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger.

The son of Armenian immigrants, Kevorkian has no children and has never married.

Answer 2

Pathologist who assisted terminally ill patients commit suicide.