Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a medical pathologist and right-to-die activist who became known as ‘Dr. Death’, died of kidney problems and pneumonia on June 3, 2011 at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.
Kevorkian, 83, championed the rights of a terminally ill patient to die via physician-assisted suicide, and claimed to have helped 130 patients end their own pain and suffering.
The doctor began advertising his services as a “death counselor” in Detroit newspapers in 1987. His first public assisted-suicide came in 1990, when he aided an elderly Alzheimer’s patient, Janet Adkins.
The State of Michigan revoked Kevorkian’s medical license in 1991 and forbade him from working with patients. He continued to hook up his patients to a euthanasia device that he developed, but each individual was responsible for pushing a button that would release the drugs that would end his or her life.
The former medical man took a brazen step to bring attention to the cause in 1999 when he filmed the death of Thomas Youk, who suffered from ALS. In this particular case, the doctor administered the lethal injection and then allowed 60 Minutes to air the videotape.
Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder and the delivery of a controlled substance. A Michigan jury found him guilty and he spent 8 years in prison.
Shortly after he was granted parole in 2007, the 80-year-old told an audience at a University of Florida public lecture: “My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering. It’s got to be decriminalized.”
Check out a recent FOX interview below:
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