Jack Kevorkian

Jack Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 - June 3, 2011) was a physician nicknamed "Dr. Death" for his assistance in numerous suicides throughout the 1990s. He was finally convicted of murder in 1999 and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. In 2007, he was released after serving only 8 years, after receiving time off for good behavior and pledging not to assist in any more suicides.

Kevorkian then became a speaker at liberal college campuses, at a fee of $50,000 a speech.

Kevorkian was hospitalized on May 18 at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, with pneumonia and kidney problems. He died June 3, 2011, probably as the result of a pulmonary blood clot. He did not commit suicide.

Kevorkian had a lifelong ambition to be an actor, and had a gregarious and dramatic behavior (once showing up to his trial dressed in costume). While he was an advocate of physician assisted suicide laws his actions did not begin to meet the ethical standards that those laws laid out. Oftentimes he would meet the patients days or hours before assisting them in suicide, he would not seek a second opinion, did not contact their primary care providers, did not seek a psychological profile, did not review their medical records, and did not follow any sort of waiting period policy to ensure that the victims actually wanted to commit suicide.