Dr. Jack Kevorkian Nick Wallner Mr. Sciuto Junior Morality April 13, 2008
The controversial man, who is sometimes called Dr. Death, had his humble beginnings in the town of Pontiac Michigan. (1) He was born on May, 28, in the year 1928 to a middleclass family. (2) Jack became acquainted with the idea of death at an early age because both his mother Levon and his father Satenig Kevorkian were Armenian immigrants who fled to the United States to ride themselves of the terrible deeds of the Ottoman Empire. (3) The effects of the war still took their course with Jack however, because most of his relatives had died out during WWI in the Armenian holocaust, an event that neurologist Harold Klawans, who has examined Kevorkian’s life, said is central to Jack Kevorkian’s psyche. (4) Jack Kevorkian’s altered psyche first became evident when he was a child and refused to attend Sunday School because the teacher’s their could not adequately answer his burning question as to why Jesus could not stop the suffering of so many people during the Armenian Holocaust. (5) This inability to answer Jack’s questions caused the young Dr. Death to question every answer they fed him, and instilled a deep sense of doubt within his mind. Despite his rebellious psyche Jack Kevorkian remained a highly qualified student, graduating from high-school at the age of 17 years near the top of his class, and learning both Japanese and German during the years of World War II. (6) Kevorkian also witnessed the crippling that disease can have on someone and their loved ones firsthand when his mother suffered and died from incurable cancer. (7) Kevorkian carried his stellar academic record into the University of Michigan Medical School. He would excel here, and eventually chose to pursue pathology because he found it both challenging and interesting and welcomed the challenge. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in the year 1952 with a degree in Pathology. (8) From here Jack had a stint in the U.S. military, where he used his mastery of the Japanese language to his advantage and gained respect as well as insight when he saw all of the suffering that went on in the Korean War. (9) This vision of suffering added to Dr. Kevorkian’s thirst for an end to suffering and thus added to the psyche he developed earlier in life. After his time in the military, Jack Kevorkian worked in several hospitals, the first one being the University of Michigan medical center. During this time of early residency in his professional career Dr. Kevorkian became infatuated with his patients eyes at the time of death, and in the year 1956, he published his research in determining the exact time of death by watching his patient’s eyes, earned the nickname “Dr. Death” among his colleagues and the public in general. (10) Adding to his morbid namesake, Dr. Death, Jack took volunteers at a Pontiac Michigan Hospital and gave them blood transfusions from corpses. These attempts to further medicine in his mind were not funded and eventually led to his unemployment because, as he said, his resume, “Scared the hell out of people.” (11) Also adding to his liberal medical views was his idea that the organs of Death Row inmates should be harvested and given to those in need of them. He even left his employer to pursue this idea, but eventually stopped because he was strongly opposed to capital punishment and did not want the public to believe that he supported the killing of inmates. (12) After a few more trials to transfuse the blood of corpses into living bodies, and the death of his father, Jack Kevorkian began the biggest quest of his life. This quest was and is legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide for that matter because Kevorkian believes that there is no ethical difference between the two. This goal for Dr. Jack would become the most important in his life. A good starting point for Jack Kevorkian’s assisted suicide coverage would be in the year 1989, when he built the “Thanatron” or death machine. (13) This machine would deliver a lethal amount of potassium chloride to Dr. Death’s patients after putting them into a painless sleep. (14) The machine was first used on June 4th 1990, to assist Janet Adkins, after she consulted him after she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and he assisted her in committing suicide with the help of the “Thanatron.” (15) After this Dr. Kevorkian was put on trial, but found innocent because Michigan does not have a law against suicide or the assistance of suicide. Soon after Dr. Kevorkian began this crusade for assisted suicide, he was no longer a doctor at all, because he had his license to practice medicine rebuked in the year 1991. Kevorkian would continue to assist his “patients” with their suicides and eventually amount numerous court cases against him, that only his lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, could get him out of unscathed. Since being appointed Jack Kevorkian’s lawyer in August of 1990 Geoffrey Fieger has helped make Kevorkian into a hero to some of the public. (16) Fieger has made the argument not about giving doctors more power, but about the patients civil rights. By making it an argument about civil rights Fieger has made most of the journalists covering Jack Kevorkian write somewhat favorable articles about him. Without Fieger at his side Kevorkian would have probably gone to jail before ever becoming a major figure in the United States. Some people argue that no one should be able to kill themselves and to help them is a sin. To this claim Kevorkian asks one to see how miserable life is as a paraplegic and, “Be strapped into a wheelchair for 72 hours so they can’t move, and they are catheterized, and they are placed on the toilet and fed and bathed,”(17) and only after doing that can you bring your argument to him. One of the more interesting cases involving Geoffrey Fieger and Jack Kevorkian was the case involving the assisted suicide of Hugh Gale. Hugh Gale was a 70 year old emphysema patient who some believe changed his death wish at the last minute twice. (18) A mask, that dispensed carbon monoxide gas was placed over his face to painlessly kill him, when he began to struggle and said, “take it off!” upon hearing this Kevorkian switched the mask to oxygen and the man returned to normal, and after collecting his thoughts decided he wished to commit suicide still. (19) Kevorkian originally wrote in his report that this happened a second time and he was unable to save Hugh again, however he discarded this report by putting whiteout on the aforementioned portion, and when later asked about it said that it was a “typo.”(20) Fieger would say that the report was an “erroneous draft,” and Kevorkian would not go to jail because the witnesses of the assisted suicide said that Hugh did not plea for the mask to be taken off a second time.(21) The personnel relationship between Kevorkian and Fieger is as complicated as their public lives in the spotlight. Despite saving Kevorkian from going to jail on numerous accounts, Fieger has said, “He fires me every day…he is my biggest adversary.”(22) Yet Fieger still has not charged Kevorkian a penny for his services, perhaps they are both getting what they want out of the relationship, Fieger gets to be viewed as a tactful, Clarence Darrow like lawyer in the public eye, while Jack Kevorkian gets to remain free to continue his crusade for assisted suicide. Despite facing a lot of adversity Jack Kevorkian has generally had much public support, with most journalists painting positive pictures of him for mainstream America, and some doctors privately admiring him. However, Kevorkian still has his critics, in an article entitled, “The Kevorkian Epidemic” Paul R. McHugh shows the other side of what Jack Kevorkian is doing by saying he is simply an individual with an overvalued idea. He supports this claim by saying, “For Kevorkian, thinking about how to terminate the sick has become his exclusive concern. His belief in the justice of his ideas is intense enough for him to starve himself if he is thwarted by law.”(23) McHugh believes that Kevorkian may be insane or at least that he does not see the big picture with what he is doing any longer. He believes that these assisted suicides tear apart families and that the people can be comforted on earth that the role of doctors is to help the patients, not to kill them. The Catholic Church states in the Catechism “2277: Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.” However the Catholic Church is not against helping the terminally ill to cope with their pain when it says, “2279: Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.” And still there are those that are in favor of Kevorkian and see him as a hero, such as James Donahue. He makes his views evident when he titled his article, “Unsung American Hero Kevorkian coming home to die.” He believes that, “the Physicians oath has always been to relieve pain and suffering, not to keep people alive and extend this pain and suffering.”(24) Until recently Jack Kevorkian had been in prison after being sentenced to 10 to 25 years behind bars, after pushing the limits even for him by televising one of his “assisted suicides.” The case dealt with a Mr. Thomas Youk, whom Kevorkian directly euthanized. (25) In the year 1999 Jack Kevorkian was found guilty on the charge of second degree murder. (26) He remained in prison until June 1, 2007, when he was released due to good behavior, and perhaps the fact that his life expectancy was short due to the fact that he was suffering from Hepatitis C. (27) While in prison he was reported as saying hat if he were to get out, he would no longer directly help others commit suicide, but rather work to legalize euthanasia on a national stage. Upon reflection of his compatriot Kevorkian, Geoffrey Fieger uses night as a metaphor for death saying, simply, “A lot of people don’t go into the night so gently…A physician’s role is not to walk away.” (28)


Bibliography Betzold, Michael. “The Selling of Doctor Death." New Republic. 26 May 1997, 22-28. Donahue, James. "Unsung American Hero Kevorkian Coming Home To Die." James Donahue’s stories. Accessed:02/12/2008, 1-2. Gibbs, Nancy and Jon D Hull. "RX for Death." TIME. 31 May 1993, 34-40. McHugh, Paul R.. “The Kevorkian epidemic." American Scholar. 07 January 1993, 15- 28. Uehling, Mark D.. "Dr. Kevorkian looks death right in the eye." Biography. 26 January 1997, 34-39. "'Dr Death' released from US jail." BBC NEWS. Friday, 1 June 2007, 1-2.

End Notes (1) Mark. D Uehling, “Dr. Kevorkian looks death right in the eye,” Biography, 1 January 1997 P.1. (2) Uehling P.1 (3) Uehling P.2-3 (4) Uehling P.2 (5) Uehling P.2 (6) Uehling P.2 (7) Nancy Gibbs and Jon D. Hull, “RX for Death” Time, 31 May 1993. P.3 (8) Michael Betzhold, “The Selling of Dr. Death.” New Republic, 26 June 1997. P. 3 (9) Uehling P. 3 (10) Betzhold P.3 (11) Betzhold P.3 (12) Betzhold P.4 (13) Betzhold P.4 (14) Betzhold P.4 (15) Betzhold P.5 (16) Betzhold P.5 (17) Betzhold P.8 (18) Gibbs and Hull P.5 (19) Gibbs and Hull P.5 (20) Betzhold P.9 (21) Betzhold P.9 (22) Uehling P.3 (23) Paul R. McHugh, “The Kevorkian Epidemic.” American Scholar, Winter 1997. P.4 (24) James Donahue, “Unsung American Hero Kevorkian Coming Home to Die.” James Donahue’s Stories, 12 February 2008. P.2 (25) “Dr. Death Released from U.S. Jail.” Friday, 1 June 2007. P.1 (26) “Dr. Death Released from U.S. Jail.” P.1 (27) “Dr. Death Released from U.S. Jail.” P.2 (28) Uehling P.4