"Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian dead at 83

2011-06-04 07:01:21 GMT+7 (ICT)

ROYAL OAK, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) -- Dr. Jack Kevorkian, also known as "Dr. Death," on Friday died at age 83 due to pneumonia and kidney problems, CNN reported.

Kevorkian was hospitalized at the at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan on May and his health deteriorated quickly. His attorney Mayer Morganroth said he died peacefully and in no pain.

The 83-year-old physician was known for being an advocate of the assisted-suicide. An estimated 130 people were assisted by Kevorkian to end their lives. The first one occurred in June 1990 when a Jane Adkins, a 53-year-old Oregon woman, ended her life on the back of a van using Kevorkian's death machine the "Thanatron."

The suicide device released a lethal mix of drugs into the patient's blood stream by just pushing one button. Kevorkian never regretted his actions as he claimed that it was his duty to help ending suffering of patients.

He was acquitted in several times during the 1990s and had his doctor's license removed. Between 1990 and 1998, he assisted in the death of around 130 patients suffering terminal diseases. In 1998, he authorized the broadcast of a video recording showing him injecting lethal drugs on 52-year-old Thomas Youk.

He was convicted of Second Degree Murder after a long trial which included Kevorkian's self-defense and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. He only spent eight years and two months in jail and released on parole in 2007.

After his prison term, he was prohibited from engaged in assisted-suicides. In his last years, Kevorkian unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Michigan and focused on promoting a better understanding of the assisted suicide. He also criticized the states where assisted suicide was legalized, it is not being done right. Kevorkian said that the law allowed patients to take a pill to end their lives but he claimed that a doctor has to be present and do it.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-06-04

Interesting that he seems to have died of natural causes.

Interesting that he seems to have died of natural causes.

Obviously a lucky man. When my end comes along I hope that I'm allowed to choose the way I go rather than having to rely on the religious and medical industry telling me the way that they think I ought to die.

I am with you on that one. I have no plans for sticking through a long, agonizing and eventually terminal ordeal. Unfortunately, suicide isn't always as easy as it seems.

I am going out like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

Unfortunately, suicide isn't always as easy as it seems.

I'm not sure that I could do it - as logical as it seems in certain circumstances. Maybe religious brainwashing as a child? Maybe instinct?

Interesting that he seems to have died of natural causes.

Obviously a lucky man. When my end comes along I hope that I'm allowed to choose the way I go rather than having to rely on the religious and medical industry telling me the way that they think I ought to die.

I want to pass away peacefully in my sleep just like my Granddad, not screaming in terror like the 36 passengers on his bus.

They were not going to pass away peacefully in their sleep. They were going to do it over a long period of time in a lot of discomfort, pain and misery.

I can't blame them, but not sure that I could do it myself.

^{He was there when people needed relief. RIP DOC}

^{One day there was a 97 year old woman, who wanted to commit suicide but unfortunately she did not know where her heart was.}

^{So the old woman calls up her doctor and asked,''Where's my heart located?''}

^{''On a woman, it's usually located under her left breast,'' the doctor replied.}

^{The next day the woman was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a gun shot wound to the knee.}

I am going out like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

He died?

I am going out like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

He died?

Well I thought so but maybe he was acting.

Kevorkian spread a message that needed to be heard, but I'm not so sure he was the right messenger.

I agree with the doctor, that assisted suicide is ok in the right circumstances - when the person is fully aware of their decision and it's not a rash decision.