Word: kevorkian
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...Jack Kevorkian -- a.k.a. Dr. Death -- may be back in business. Kevorkian, 62, a retired Michigan pathologist, gained national notoriety last year when he used his home-built suicide machine to help Alzheimer's patient Janet Adkins kill herself. Last week, two days after Oakland County Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert issued a court injunction barring Kevorkian from using the suicide machine, he announced that he had counseled a dentist with cancer who was (and likely still is) contemplating using a similar machine of his own. Said Kevorkian: "I'm just testing the limits of the injunction...
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...
Even if the case were more clear-cut, much of the medical community would still reject Kevorkian's solution, fearing the damage that would be done if doctors routinely acted as executioners. "The doctor-patient relationship is based on mutual trust," notes Dr. Nancy Dickey, a trustee of the American Medical Association. "Our patients should not be concerned that we are going to make a value judgment that their lives are no longer worth living...
...Kevorkian's fate rests with Michigan prosecutors, who must review state laws about assisted suicide. Seven years ago, the state's high court threw out a case against a man who gave a loaded gun to a friend who later shot himself. While suicide is not unlawful in many states, aiding and abetting suicide is. As yet no charges have been filed, but a Michigan judge has issued a temporary restraining order barring Kevorkian from assisting other suicides. The doctor admits to only one regret. Had the medical examiners come more quickly, Adkins' organs might have been harvested for transplant...
...Jack Kevorkian finds the first patient for his suicide machine -- and becomes the latest, most pugnacious spokesman for the rights of the terminally...