Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian Set to Leave Prison: Reactions Mixed

By Anastacia Mott Austin

This Friday Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed "Dr. Death" by his opponents, will be discharged from a state prison near Coldwater, Michigan.

He will be closely monitored by the Michigan state parole board to ensure that he does not continue his work as an assisted-suicide practitioner. He is, of course, allowed free speech and has had numerous requests for public speaking engagements. He claims he will continue to advocate for right-to-die laws. "It’s got to be legalized," Kevorkian told Fox2 News in a recent interview. "That’s the point. I’ll work to have it legalized, but I sure won’t break any laws."

Kevorkian, 79, was convicted of second-degree murder for aiding in the death of Thomas Youk, a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. His flair for dramatic publicity earned him a reputation as an arrogant showboater who flaunted the law and dared the Michigan D.A.’s office to prosecute him for Youk’s death by wearing a cardboard sign around his neck.

He insisted on representing himself during his trial. Though he had been prosecuted on numerous previous occasions, a conviction had been difficult because the laws concerning assisted suicide were not always clear. In the Youk case the prosecuting attorney was able to convince the jury that a murder had been committed because the patient had been physically unable to kill himself.

Convicted of a 10-to-25 year sentence, a parole board granted Kevorkian his release on December of 2006 (set to be enacted this Friday), despite previous denials of parole.

A possible factor in the parole decision, considered most ironic by some of Kevorkian’s foes, is the fact that he has been declared "terminally ill" with Hepatitis C. He also has diabetes and other contributing health factors.

Reactions to Kevorkian’s release are mixed among both sides of the right-to-die debate, as well as from his assisted-suicide patients’ families.

Steven Hopcraft, an assisted-suicide advocate working to pass a proposal in California, believes that Kevorkian has done nothing to forward the cause. Hopcraft told reporters, "He’s the equivalent of a back-alley abortionist."

Kate Davenport, a representative from the Death with Dignity Center in Oregon, agrees. "One of the driving forces of the law was to prevent the Jack Kevorkians from happening [What he was doing] wasn’t well-regulated or sane," said Davenport to the press. "There were just too many potential pitfalls."

Currently, Oregon is the only state in this country to have any type of legal assisted-suicide law.

Opponents believe that suicide does not have to be the answer for the terminally ill or people who are suffering pain. Burke Balch is the director of the Powell Center for Medical Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee. Balch told reporters, "We need to come up with better solutions to human suffering and human need. The solution here is not to kill people who are getting inadequate pain management, but to remove barriers to adequate pain management."

Family members of patients who died with assistance from Dr. Kevorkian have had mixed reactions to his release. Karen Shoffstall died in 1997 with Dr. Kevorkian’s help because she felt she couldn’t live with her multiple sclerosis. Her sister Tina Allerellie stated that Kevorkian’s discharge from prison only brought back sad memories. "It’s like the wound that was starting to heal has been cut open again," Allerellie told members of the press. "Her thing was depression, her thing was fear of an uncertain future. We all thought that, even if she did contact him, there was no way that he would do what he did. We were all very, very wrong."

Other relatives of assisted suicide patients had a far different reaction. "It was a medical service that was requested and, from my point of view, compassionately provided by Jack," said Terry Youk, whose brother Thomas’s case was the one that sent Kevorkian to prison. "It should not be a crime," added Youk.

Kevorkian claims to have assisted 130 people with suicide between 1990 and 1998. Allerellie thinks he was motivated by a quest for fame, not compassion. "His intent, I believe, has always been to gain notoriety," says Allerellie. "I’m sure if I was to say the name ‘Karen Shoffstall,’ he wouldn’t have a clue who I’m talking about."

But Terry Youk says that Kevorkian tried to talk his brother out of committing suicide, only consenting to help when it became obvious that Thomas Youk had no quality of life. "He was very clear about what he wanted to do," says his brother.

Some physicians are undecided about the idea of assisted suicide, and believe that both quality of care and end-of-life options need to be improved. "There are a handful of patients who have the best of care, everything has been done right, but they still suffer," says Sidney Wanzer, a retired physician who supports the right-to-die platform. Adds Wanzer, "It’s this person I think should have the right to say, ‘This is not working and I want to die sooner."