When Dr. Jack Kevorkian, or "Dr. Death," died on Friday, people are once again are talking about assisted suicide and just what the phrase "death with dignity" means. To help inform the debate, here is a listing of facts relating to Dr. Kevorkian and assisted suicide.
* Jack Kevorkian was born May 28, 1928. He was the son of immigrants fleeing the Armenian genocide. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1952. After a long and controversial career, he reportedly died peacefully, while listening to the music of Bach.
* It was just 1956 when he garnered his nickname "Dr. Death." He published a paper detailing his efforts to photograph the eyes of dying patients, "The Fundus Oculi and the Determination of Death."
* In 1958 Kevorkian put out another controversial paper, this one advocating experimentation on death row inmates.
* In 1960, he followed up with an idea to give convicts sentenced to death a sort of sentence suspension. His idea was to keep them alive but unconscious.
" If the experiment was not excessively mutilating, the subject could conceivably be revived if evidence of innocence was uncovered," Kevorkian said.
* In 1976, Kevorkian pursued a Hollywood dream of sorts. He invested over $100,000 to write a script, hire production crew and actors, and make a full-length feature film about Handel's Messiah. The film flopped.
* In 1989, using $30.00 worth of scrap metal and parts, Kevorkian builds his first "suicide machine."
* On June 4, 1990, Kevorkian helps Janet Adkins kill herself in the back of a 1968 Volkswagen van in Portland, Ore. The case ignites the nationwide right to die debate.
* Through the early and mid-1990s, Kevorkian helps dozens of people end their lives. He is frequently charged for alleged crimes surrounding the deaths. Numerous courts dismiss charges on multiple occasions.
* In June 1997, the Supreme Court rules unanimously that states have the right to enact laws prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide.
* In October 1997, Oregon enacts the Death With Dignity Act, which allows terminal Oregonians to voluntarily end their lives through the self-administration of prescribed lethal medications. Oregon was the first state to have such a law. Since enactment, Washington and Montana have passed similar legislation.
* In November 1998, 60 Minutes broadcasts a video showing Kevorkian lethally injecting terminally-ill Thomas Youk. The broadcast will eventually lead to the conviction of Kevorkian. In 1999 he was sentenced to 10-25 years in prison for delivering the controlled substance to Youk.
* Kevorkian was released in 2007, after serving eight years of the sentence.
* In 2008, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress.
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