Rip Dr Jack Kevorkian

[Guest Mr Pepper]

A great advocate of patient rights has passed. Dr Jack Kevorkian passed away early this morning at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital. RIP Dr Kevorkian, you will be missed.

 

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20110603/NEWS01/110603016/Assisted-suicide-advocate-Jack-Kevorkian-dies?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|FRONTPAGE

 

Dr, Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan pathologist who put assisted suicide on the world’s medical ethics stage, died this morning between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., said his lawyer Mayer Morganroth.

 

Kevorkian, 83, died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where he had been hospitalized for about two weeks with kidney and heart problems.

 

Morganroth said it appears Kevorkian suffered a pulmonary thrombosis when a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart.

 

With Kevorkian were his niece Ava Janus and Morganroth.

 

“It was peaceful. He didn’t feel a thing,” Morganroth said.

 

Morganroth said the hospital staff, doctors and nurses said Kevorkian's passing was “a tremendous loss and I agree with them. He did so much.”

 

Morganroth said there were no artificial attempts to keep Kevorkian alive.

 

Morganroth said he doubts anyone will assume Kevorkian's role in assisted suicide: “Who else would take those kind of risks?”

 

Morganroth said there are no plans for any memorial.

 

Kevorkian was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder and served eight years of prison time.

 

Kevorkian, believed to have assisted in 130 suicides, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison but was released in 2007. Last year, he was the subject of “You Don’t Know Jack,” an HBO movie starring Al Pacino.

 

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