Jack Kevorkian Assisted Suicide Case Study

Physician assisted suicide was brought to mainstream attention in the 1990’s due to Dr. Kevorkian’s “suicide machine," who claims to have assisted over 100 suicide deaths of terminally ill patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Dickinson, p. 8). In the early 1990’s, for the first time in United States history the issue was brought to the voting polls in California, Washington, and Oregon (Dickinson, p. 9). The bill was passed in Oregon; legally allowing physicians to facilitate death of the terminally ill, but voters fails to pass the bill in Washington and California (Dickinson, p. 9). In 2008 voters in Washington State passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act (Dickinson, p. 277). Today

“A serial mercy killer” (The Right To Die, 80). This is what some would define what Kevorkian did. Kevorkian, however does not feel this way. He performs his acts for the greater good in his eyes. However, he never hesitated to try any other treatments that could result in the patient’s improved health, whether it be antibiotics, or even experimental drug maintenance programs (The Right To Die, 82). He feels that medically assisted suicide is an essential option to those that are incurable and dying (The Right To Die, 83). Kevorkian’s main concern for his terminal patients was their comfort and confidence in their decision. He explains the death his patient’s experienced as being “like a painless heart attack in a deep sleep”(The Right To Die,

After talks with her husband, sons, minister, and local doctors; Janet Adkins decided she didn¹t want to undergo the sustained mental deterioration that Alzheimer¹s Disease caused (Uhlman 111). She began to realize she had the disease when she started forgetting songs and failed to recognize notes as she played the piano (Filene 188). ³She read in Newsweek about Dr. Jack Kevorkian and his ŒMercitron¹ machine, then saw him on the ŒDonahue¹ Television show² (Filene 188). With her husband¹s consent but objections by sons and doctors, she telephoned him to arrange to kill herself (Filene 188). She still had a life expectancy of at least ten years with the illness, but she wished to die. She wanted to die before the disease robbed her of her

wrote how he was a doctor and was one of the first notable physicians to aid in suicide for his patients that wanted it. In 1989 Kevorkian aided in Janet Adkins suicide, his first patient to do so. After many years of helping his patients in this way, Kevorkian got in trouble in 1998 when he got caught administering a lethal injection to Thomas York, a patient who was suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and wanted to die. Kevorkian got caught because he videotaped himself preforming the act because he wanted it to be broadcasted on 60 Minutes. Dr. Kevorkian was sentenced to 10-25 years in prison because of that event. He was considered an instrument of death who is a threat to the public (203-204). Some people see Kevorkian as a hero, but in reality, his practice of physician-assisted suicide is immensely wrong. The use of physicians to end one’s life is morally wrong and should not be legalized.

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in the United States gained national attention in the early 1990s, when Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a pathologist, conducted over 130 cases of PAS from 1990 to 1998 despite numerous arrests and eventual loss of medical licensure. His first PAS was provided to Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old woman diagnosed with early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (Schneider, 2011). Dr. Kevorkian was then charged with murder, but Michigan’s court of Appeals dropped the case on December 13, 1990, as no laws were in place regarding PAS at that time (Schneider, 2011). In each of the 130 plus cases of PAS, the individuals committed suicide with the devices designed by Dr. Kevorkian. These devices, with the control

The topic of assisted suicide is very controversial and is heavily debated upon all around the world. While physician assisted suicide is only legal in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and a few states in the U.S., it is illegally practiced widely by physicians and nurses, such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian. I first heard of physician assisted suicide when the death of Dr. Kevorkian, an assisted suicide advocate and a suicide aid, was on the news in 2011. Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of many patients who could not find any more reasons to live. Many people oppose of his practice, but I believe Kevorkian was trying to help these patients find peace. This topic is important because it can help end the long pain and suffering of patients. Seeing the struggles of the patients Dr. Kevorkian has worked with makes me believe that the legalization of physician assisted suicide it necessary, but not everyone agrees.

When talking about assisted suicide, a name that comes up often as an advocate for it is Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Dr. Kevorkian was one of the biggest advocates for assisted suicide, he was so much for it that he even went to jail for an 8-year sentence because of his beliefs. In November of 1998, Dr. Kevorkian helped a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis commit suicide and he videoed the act and sent it to a popular national television show (Stafford 43). Prior to this suicide, Kevorkian had been tried three others times, but was acquitted by the jury. Because of the lethal injection and the act being videoed, Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to jail for ten to twenty-five years.

Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide advocate died at the age of 83 on June 3, 2011. Supporters say he was a compassionate caregiver who paid a severe penalty for helping chronically ill patients end their suffering. Critics, however, say Kevorkian’s compassion clouded his ethical physician responsibility. He first captured the public’s attention in 1990 when he put a needle in the arm of Janet Atkins. Although this needle did end her life, his compassion, considered clouded by critics, spared her from the painful progression of her Alzheimer’s disease (Hulett, 2011). On the day of his death, Lessenberry stated “It will be very interesting 50 years from now to see whether Kevorkian is regarded by history as this sort of a bizarre crank or whether he'll be regarded as a modern medical pioneer (as cited in Hulett 2011).

Kevorkian committed Euthanasia which is to help someone end their own life. As if helping someone kill themselves wasn’t bad enough, he videotaped the whole process which did

Kevorkian invented a simple but effective machine that allows patients to take their own lives painlessly and efficiently. He provides the machine for his patients to commit Suicide either by deadly injection or by Carbon monoxide poisoning. The patients cause their own death by pushing a button on the machine. For example, Dr. Kevorkian hooked his first patient, Janet Adkins, up to the machine in 1990, and She pushed the button that released a deadly drug into her vein. Another patient was a fifty-three-year-old man Who Suffered from bone cancer. The patient Wore a mask with a plastic tubing On his face. He caused his own death by removing the clip from the plastic tubing. His action allowed the carbon monoxide to flows into the mask and into his

Whereas, in voluntary euthanasia, the physician plays an active role in putting the patient to sleep, usually accomplished by giving a lethal injection. Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed “Doctor Death” due to his assistance of 130 terminally ill patients to end their lives, had made it his goal in life to influence the prohibition of both active euthanasia and assisted suicide in America. In 1999, the 72 year-old was arrested for second degree murder and sentenced to prison for 10 to 25 years. Doctors that practice euthanasia continue to risk charges of murder for helping individuals with a terminal illness that provided full consent to hasten their death. His arrest was unjust considering that Dr. Kevorkian had videotaped every patient verbally providing their consent. Physician assisted suicide is only legal in six states across America which are Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, California and New Mexico. Euthanasia is illegal in most of the United States. This is a struggle for many patients because they must move to one of these states in order to gain access to the opportunity of dying with dignity.

A mentally competent patient who is capable of giving informed consent should be allowed to seek assistance in ending his or her life if he or she is not able to do so independently. Physicians should be allowed to help patients without the threat of facing homicide charges. Jack Kevorkian helped many patients who were either dying or greatly suffering to end their lives by providing them with either a carbon monoxide mask or an injection of a lethal dose. Although he was imprisoned due to second-degree murder charges, Kevorkian never ended his fight towards trying to legalize euthanasia and uphold a person’s autonomy. Mair and Schmidt both write about the implications of euthanasia and assistive suicide, and how the principles of autonomy, beneficence, and consequentialism apply to these cases. Physicians are morally correct in helping patients end their lives if this means the physician is helping to end unbearable pain and suffering, and if the patient is mentally competent to give informed

ASSISTED SUICIDE or euthanasia On July 26, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld decisions in New York and Washington State that criminalized assisted suicide. As of April 1999, physicians-assisted suicide is illegal in all but a couple of states. Over thirty states have established laws prohibiting assisted suicide, and of those who don’t have statues, a number of them prohibit it through common law. In Michigan, Jack Kevorkian was initially charged with violating the state statue. He was charged with first-degree murder and delivering a controlled substance without a license. The assisted suicide charge was dropped, however, he was eventually convicted of second-degree murder and delivering a controlled substance without a

People have different ideas of a good essay. Essays that are interesting to the readers. For an essay to be considered a good essay, it has to be entertaining, the readers should be able to picture an image in their mind. For many others, they may have different ideas about what a good writer is. For example, I don’t like it when writers give out too much information. They will describe things and go on and on about it. Others might like this, but I don’t like it when the writers do this. Most writers have one of the qualities that I think makes a good writer. They don’t have to have all three qualities for me to think that it’s a good essay.

The legalization of assisted suicide has been a subject of popular public debate. In the early 1990s, the actions of Jack Kevorkian brought massive attention to the issue. Kevorkian began to help suffering individuals end their lives with a “suicide machine” he designed. The device administered an anesthetic and then a lethal injection of potassium chloride through an intravenous line.