Jack Kevorkian
|
Won't you keep us working? Working down below? This page needs work to reach an encyclopedic standard. If you see something missing, you can help The Mysterious Spanish Ladies by joining the wiki and expanding the article. |
Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian (May 26th 1928 – June 3rd 2011) was an Armenian-American pathologist and proponent of physician-assisted euthanasia, who is said to have assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people between 1990 and 1998. Kevorkian employed self-devised euthanasia devices, which allowed the user to administer fatal drugs, chemicals or gases to themselves which would cause their deaths. Between May 1994 and June 1997, Kevorkian was tried four times for assisting suicides, and was acquitted three times, with the fourth trial ending in a mistrial. As his notoriety grew in the media, Kevorkian was often referred to as "Dr. Death".
On November 22nd 1998, CBS News aired an episode of 60 Minutes depicting the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, who was in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease (or ALS); on this occasion, Kevorkian administered the fatal injection personally, due to Youk's inability to do so. In the footage, Kevorkian is seen daring the authorities to try to convict him. Three days later, he was charged with second-degree murder and the delivery of a controlled substance (to Youk). Kevorkian discharged his attorneys and represented himself during the trial, a decision he later came to regret. In March 1999, following a two-day trial, Kevorkian was found guilty of second-degree homicide by a Michigan jury, and was sentenced to between 10 and 25 years in prison. He was sent to a prison in Coldwater, Michigan, to serve his sentence; repeated appeals and parole applications were unsuccessful.
Kevorkian was paroled for good behavior on June 1st 2007, after spending eight years and two months in prison. By this time he was terminally ill with Hepatitis C. On May 18th 2011, he was hospitalized with kidney problems and pneumonia; his condition rapidly deteriorated and he died from a thrombosis on June 3rd 2011, a week after his 83rd birthday.
In March 2023, Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation cited Kevorkian as a direct influence on The Residents' 2025 album and "modern opera" Doctor Dark,[1] which features a fictionalized Kevorkian analogue named Dr. Anastasia Dark.
See also
External links and references
- ↑ Homer Flynn (interviewed by Allan Macinnis), "Faceless Forever at 50: The Residents, 'Triple Trouble', and a Setlist to Die, Die, Die For: A Homer Flynn Interview", Stereo Embers, March 25th 2023