Word: kevorkian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Kevorkian, though, is not like other doctors. A retired pathologist from Royal Oak, Mich., he has long been a pugnacious maverick, recommending, among other things, a scheme whereby doctors would render death-row patients unconscious so their living bodies could be used for medical experiments. In recent years Kevorkian has fought hard for a patient's right to commit suicide and a doctor's right to help. Last fall he invented the easily replicable suicide machine using $45 worth of hardware and tried to advertise it in a local medical journal. When the editors refused, he peddled the story...
Adkins read about Kevorkian and got in touch with him in Michigan, where the legality of assisted suicide is murky. Her three sons urged her to try experimental treatments for Alzheimer's. But when the therapy failed -- her memory continued to fade and her beloved flute playing became impossible -- she vowed to go through with her decision. Her husband Ronald, an investment broker, flew to Detroit with her, all the while hoping she would change her mind at the last minute. Just in case, he bought her a round-trip plane ticket...
...Kevorkian, meanwhile, was searching for a place to accomplish the deed. The hotels, vacant office buildings and funeral parlors he approached all turned him down. So he resurrected his 1968 Volkswagen, bought the cot and some clean sheets. Without the aid of any hospital or lab, Kevorkian confirmed an Alzheimer's diagnosis and judged Adkins lucid. Two days later, they drove to a public park that had electrical outlets for campers. "There was no other place I could do it," he says. "My landlord would have thrown...
...soon as the line on the heart monitor went flat, Kevorkian called the police. Though he claims he never wanted publicity, he took center stage last week in a media barrage that ricocheted from Crossfire to Nightline, Good Morning America to Geraldo. Describing his device as "humane, dignified and painless" -- and his critics as "brainwashed ethicists" or "religious nuts" -- Kevorkian insisted that he wanted only to help patients in distress. "My biggest enemies," he says, "are the medical organizations because the independent doctors tell me they are behind me, but they can't speak...
Though some right-to-die advocates called him "a brave pioneer," doctors , and ethicists challenged Kevorkian on both moral and procedural grounds. Even groups that sponsor "death with dignity" legislation are careful to include safeguards to prevent the laws from being abused. Most require that patients make a witnessed, legal request in writing, with two independent doctors confirming that the patient's condition is unbearable and irreversible. Says Susan M. Wolf of the Hastings Center: "Even the staunchest proponents of physician-assisted suicide should be horrified at this case because there were no procedural protections...