Physician’s Assisted Suicide Case
Discussion :Physician Charged in Assisted Suicide Case.
Order instructions
In the late 1980s to early 1990s, Jack Kevorkian, a physician in Michigan, began helping terminally ill patients commit suicide. Janet Adkins, newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was Kevorkian’s first public-assisted suicide in 1989. Kevorkian was charged with murder, but the Oakland County District Court dropped charges on December 13, 1990, after a two-day preliminary hearing. The court ruled that Kevorkian did not break any law by helping Adkins commit suicide because there was, at that time, no Michigan law outlawing suicide or the medical assistance of it.
Prominent issues in the case were:
- Whether Adkins was in fact giving informed consent.
- The fact that Kevorkian did not have an established professional relationship with Adkins.
- The fact that Adkins was not terminally ill (facing death within six months).
- The issue of whether or not a person actually possesses the right to die.
- The limits of autonomy.
People v. Dr. Kevorkian, No. 90-20157 52nd Dist. Ct. Mich. (1991); 534 N.W.2d. 172 (1995). Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed “Dr. Death,” eventually claimed to have assisted with 130 suicides. In 1999, he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter, for which he served 8 years of a 10-to-25-year sentence. Kevorkian was released from prison in 2007, and allegedly remained unrepentant until his death on June 3, 2011.
Answer the following:
- In your viewpoint, was the fact that Michigan had no law against assisted suicide sufficient grounds for dismissing the first case against Kevorkian? Why or why not?
- According the principles discussed in this chapter, was Kevorkian, a physician, behaving in an ethical manner for a health care practitioner? Explain your answer to include rational.
