"Right-to-Die" Advocate Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83

The ex-pathologist--stripped of his license by the state of Michigan (USA) in 1991--helped at least 130 people kill themselves during the 1990s. In many cases, the instrument of death was a homemade contraption of tubes and bottles (which he called the Merciton) that dispensed anesthetics and lethal drugs. Other patients breathed carbon monoxide (CO) through a mask. In either case, they administered the deadly agent to themselves. Most of the suicides died in the back of Dr. Kevorkian's Volkswagen van. Michigan authorities prosecuted him on four separate occasions, but could not make any murder charges stick.

In the 1998 assisted suicide of former racecar driver Thomas Youk, who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Dr. Kevorkian injected the lethal drugs himself, crossing a line in the eyes of many. To provoke another courtroom showdown, he videotaped the death and then allowed the CBS television show "60 Minutes" to broadcast it. Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder, convicted, and sentenced in 1999 to 10-25 years in prison, where he served 8 years. He promised to give up the practice of assisted suicide, but he remained outspoken against what he called "a tyrannical system that denied people the right to die."

Kevorkian was released on parole for two years in 2007, under the conditions that he not help anyone else die, or provide care for anyone older than 62 or disabled. He agreed to abstain from assisting any more terminal patients with death, and his role in the matter would strictly be to persuade US states to change their laws on assisted suicide. He was also forbidden by the rules of his parole from commenting about assisted suicide. Kevorkian had struggled with kidney problems for years and had recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, which may have been caused by hepatitis C. Kevorkian's conditions grew rapidly worse and he died from a thrombosis on June 3, 2011. According to his attorney, there were no artificial attempts to keep him alive and his death was painless.

Assisted suicide is the common term for actions by which an individual helps another person voluntarily bring about their own death. The current waves of global public debate have been ongoing for decades, centering on legal, religious, and moral conceptions of "suicide" and a personal "right to death." Assisted-suicide is legal in several jurisdictions, including Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and three US states (Oregon, Washington, and Montana). Australian Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder and director of the proeuthanasia group Exit International, campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Federal government in 1997.

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Dr. Jack Kevorkian explains assisted suicide