US ‘Dr Death’ defends euthanasia

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2007 14:52

Jack Kevorkian, the man known as "Dr Death" for helping the terminally
ill to die, has said he had no regrets for conducting assisted suicide,
reports the BBC.

"I knew what I was doing… I accepted the consequences because I had
to do the right thing," he told the BBC.

Kevorkian, 79, was released from a US prison last week after serving
eight years for second-degree murder. He claims to have helped some 130
people to die in the 1990s. He has pledged not to do this any more.

The former pathologist was given a 10-25 year sentence in the US state
of Michigan in 1999.
He won an appeal based on his own failing health, but could go back to
prison if he conducted further assisted suicides.

Kevorkian was convicted of the murder by injection of terminally ill
Thomas Youk. A video of him dying was broadcast on television. "My aim
isn’t to kill, my aim is to relieve the patient’s anxiety, to relieve
his paralysing affliction mentally," Kevorkian said.

"I have no regrets in helping the suffering human. If I had regrets I’d
be the biggest hypocrite. "This is not done willy-nilly, it isn’t not
done because I have a whim and I want to do it immediately. No. It’s
done for the sake of the patient," he said.

Kevorkian said he believed at least "half of the doctors" in the US
were conducting assisted suicide secretly.

Earlier this week, he said would dedicate himself to garnering support
for assisted suicide. But he conceded that he was unlikely to succeed.