Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian AKA Dr. Death
[May 26, 1928 - ] [related: Thanatron, Meritron] [disambiguation: Dr. Death (mixtape), Kevorkain (DJ)]
An Armenian-American pathologist, musician, and painter, Dr. Kevorkian stands as the world's foremost proponent of euthanasia. He began serving a 25-year prison sentence in 1998 for the assisted suicide of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old paraplegic. As noted in the court proceedings, Dr. Kevorkian mailed a videotape of the procedure to CBS's longstanding news weekly 60 Minutes, a move widely seen as a direct provocation to the United States Department of Justice and the FBI - organizations with which he had long feuded. Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the death of over 150 people between 1990 and the time of his sentencing, using primarily two methods: the Thanatron ("Death Machine", from the Greek), a system of self-administered euthanizing drugs, and the Meritron ("Mercy Machine", from the Greek), a Medieval-looking contraption in which an old-fashioned gas mask was fed by a canister of carbon monoxide. In an exposé published concurrently with his sentencing, the Detroit Free Press found that over 60% of Kevorikan's deceased patients were not terminally ill [1] and had not been giving a proper psychiatric exam [2]. The publication estimated that the two most prevalent diagnoses of Dr. Kevorkian's patients were depression and hypochondria. Additionally, the paper documented Dr. Kevorkian's practice of harvesting both blood and organs from his patients immediately upon their passing - a procedure often used to partially defray the costs of his services. Most controversially, the Detroit Free Press published a letter from Dr. Kevorkian to the United States Department of Justice recommending that death row inmates be given the option to surrender to medical experimentation under full anaesthesia prior to their deaths [3] - for the "good of science".
Alongside his medical pursuits, Dr. Kevorkian maintained an active artistic life. A series of his strange, sometimes graphic oil paintings [4] gained the attention of fans and collectors [5] following his first (and only) gallery show. Also active as a composer and jazz flutist, Dr. Kevorkian released The Kevorkian Suite: A Very Still Life on the Lucid Subjazz label in 1997. The album sold poorly but generated interest in the sampled-based hip-hop community [6].
- The Works of Dr. Death
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- ↑ The Dr.'s response: "What difference does it make if someone is terminal? We are all terminal!"
- ↑ In fact, over 30% of his patients died within 24 hours of meeting Dr. Kevorkian for the first time.
- ↑ The D.O.J. was appalled by his proposal and reportedly opened its decades-long investigation in de facto response.
- ↑ Images included depictions of a naked, tortured Santa Claus, various skinless creatures in obvious pain, and a child eating the flesh of a decomposing corpse.
- ↑ Including the death metal band Acid Bath.
- ↑ The album was prominently featured in Konami Dream's controversial mixtape Dr. Death, in part as a reference to the death of their former DJ, Kevorkian.