American doctor Jacob Jack Kevorkian: biography, achievements and interesting facts

His nickname Doctor Suicide Jack Kevorkian received partly because he helped many commit suicide. He considered the right to die to be one of the basic human rights that had nothing to do with state laws. Jack believed that the sufferer could make a decision to die, and that doctors should be allowed to help him in this.

The creator of the tanatron

Initially, Jacob (Jack) Kevorkian wanted to become a baseball radio commentator, but his Armenian immigrant parents believed in his more promising future. So he became a pathologist. Jack Kevorkian worked mainly with the dead, making autopsies in order to study the nature of diseases. His parents never imagined that he would become one of the creators of the first modern "tanatron" - the "death machine" in Greek - and the first one to help people use this machine.

Jack Kevorkian: Biography

Kevorkian was born on May 28, 1928 in Pontiac, Michigan, and was brought up in an Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian environment. He studied at the University of Michigan Medical School, which he graduated in 1952. For the first time he received the dreadful nickname Doctor Death for pioneering medical experiments in the 1950s. Jack photographed the eyes of dying patients, trying to determine the exact time of death. He believed that accurate knowledge would provide valuable information about diseases. Kevorkian worked as a pathologist at three state hospitals: St. Joseph, Pontiac and Wyandotte. Also worked for the same specialty and in some hospitals in Los Angeles. Kevorkian was the founder and director of the Medical Diagnostic Center in Southfield, Michigan, and the chief pathologist at the Saratov Detroit Hospital. He published more than 30 brochures and articles in medical journals, including "Prescription medicine: the benefit of planned death."

The Suicide Machine

American physician Jack Kevorkian witnessed the suffering of terminally ill patients and became a strong supporter of the fact that they had the moral right to die when the pain became unbearable and that doctors should help them in this. To this end, he designed and built a machine that, in the hand of a person who wanted to die, injected intravenously a harmless physiological solution. When the patient was ready, he pressed the button, the flow of the harmless solution ceased, and the injection of thiopental began. This chemical injected the patient into a deep sleep, and then into a coma. One minute later, the timer in the car started the administration of a lethal dose of potassium chloride, which for several minutes led to cardiac arrest. The patient died of a heart attack while in a deep sleep. Death, according to Kevorkian, was quick, painless and easy. For a person suffering from pain in the last stage of cancer or any other disease, the machine provided the so-called. Painless euthanasia.

Biography: Jack Kevorkian - Doctor Death

In June 1990, Jack rendered the first of many help in committing suicide. He used his car to speed up the demise of Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old woman from Portland, Oregon, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. State of Michigan immediately brought him charges of murder, which was later withdrawn mainly because of the unclear legal status of assistance in suicide in the state. By 1999, Kevorkian contributed to the death of almost 130 people. In each case, he made his participation publicly as part of a campaign to change the attitude of society and laws to suicide with medical help.

Public response

Many supported what Kevorkian did. June 21, 1996 during an interview with a Detroit radio station, the famous TV journalist Mike Wallace said that he was old and ready to turn to Kevorkian if necessary. He would have done it if he had suffered from severe pain and prolonged illness, since a person has the right to do with himself what he considers necessary.

Others did not agree with this point of view. The National Spinal Injury Association opposed suicide aid because there were more effective ways to solve the problem. Refusing medical treatment is a personal choice of the way to die - in your own home with your family or on a hospital bed. Euthanasia implies the transfer of someone's right to take their lives. A person is given the right to kill.

Legal issues

Despite constant legal problems, Jack Kevorkian continued to assist in committing suicide. In 1994, he faced charges of murder in the death of Thomas Hyde, who suffered from a terminal nerve disease known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The jury agreed with the argument that there is no legislation in Michigan aimed at helping to commit suicide, and so Kevorkian can not be found guilty.

The team of lawyers of the doctor received another acquittal. They defended the position that a person can not be found guilty of criminal assistance to a suicide, if this person received medicines with the intention of alleviating the pain and suffering, even if it accelerated the arrival of death. Kevorkian was four times convicted of euthanasia in Michigan, and in three cases was acquitted. In the fourth case, a wrong trial was announced.

Legislative prohibition

In 1998, the Michigan Legislature passed a law according to which assistance in committing suicide was considered a crime and was punishable by five years' imprisonment or $ 10,000 fine. The law came into force a few months before the proposal to legalize suicide was rejected by state voters. This closed the opportunity to alleviate the pain and suffering that Kevorkian's lawyers used to obtain acquittals. The law provides that a person who knows about the intentions of another to commit suicide and provides the means to accomplish this, participates in suicide or helps plan suicide, is guilty of a criminal offense.

Calvary fighter for the right to die

Kevorkian continued what he considered correct, and called on the authorities to arrest and punish him. On September 17, 1998, he committed the euthanasia of Thomas Yuk. Instead of asking the patient to press the button and injecting a fatal dose, Kevorkian, after talking with a patient suffering from the illness of Lou Gehrig, himself introduced him a drug. Moreover, he filmed all the events on videotape in such a way that there was no doubt that he did. Then he handed the tape to the TV show "60 Minutes". This episode was shown to the whole world.

Soon after, Kevorkian was arrested for killing the first degree. In this case, when he injected a lethal dose of medicine to Thomas Yuk, he committed euthanasia, or "killing from charity", and did not help commit suicide. Kevorkian was also charged with a criminal offense under a law that banned the promotion of suicide, which took effect about two weeks before Yuk's death. Jack decided to personally defend himself in court. On March 26, 1999, by a Michigan jury , he was found guilty of second-degree murder.

Having agitated public opinion with his actions, Kevorkian continued the campaign to legalize suicides, produced with medical help. He expected arrest, and often it happened. He believed in doing everything possible for terminally ill people who are in great pain and suffering. At the same time, Kevorkian managed to draw public attention to this problem and force the courts and legislatures to take decisions on this controversial issue.

After the conclusion

Jack Kevorkian was released on June 1, 2007, after applying for conditional early release for good behavior, after spending 8 years and 2.5 months in prison.

Dr. Death led a series of lectures at the universities of Florida, California and Los Angeles, not only addressing the topic of euthanasia, but also tyranny, the criminal justice system, politics, the 9th Amendment to the US Constitution and American culture. In 2008, he, as an independent candidate, took part in the Congressional elections, receiving 2.6% of the vote.

In 2010, his film "You Do not Know Jack" was shot, in which Dr. Jack (Jack Kevorkian) was portrayed by the famous American actor Al Pacino. For this role, he was awarded "Emmy" and "Golden Globe" and personally thanked his mastermind, who was present in the audience.

May 18, 2011 Jack Kevorkian was hospitalized with pneumonia and kidney disease, and on June 3 he died. Buried in Troy, Michigan. The epitaph on the grave of the doctor reads: "I sacrificed myself for the rights of all."