Calgary Herald, Canada
sept 18 2009
Meet the real Jack Kevorkian
By Susan Martinuk, Calgary Herald
September 18, 2009
The infamous Dr. Death is back. After eight-and-a-half years in prison
and a parole period of relative silence (except for a ridiculous
attempt to run for Congress that, not surprisingly, went nowhere
fast), Jack Kevorkian is speaking out.
This month, he will release a book called GlimmerIQs, a collection of
paintings, research proposals and musings from his time in the ol’
Grey Bar Hotel. He also chose this particular month to grant his first
in-depth interview to Fox News and to hit the university lecture
circuit. He now wants to focus his rhetoric on the younger generation
because, unlike older folks, "their minds are still pliable."
That’s just the start. An HBO documentary called "You Don’t Know
Jack," starring Al Pacino in the leading role, will be televised early
next year. Since the news release proclaims that Kevorkian "walks in
the footsteps of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela," we can assume
he will be portrayed as a hero;a man of compassion who is driven to
alleviate pain and champion the public’s right to, as supporters say,
"die with dignity."
The irony is that’s not Jack. The real Jack is revealed by Kevorkian’s
own writings, actions and words. If he is about to go on campuses to
mould the pliable minds of our youth and unleash another campaign to
gain support for state-sanctioned euthanasia, then it’s imperative
that we know the real Jack.
Kevorkian killed more than 130 people. Compassion had nothing to do
with it since many had no physical illness. The chief medical examiner
who autopsied 69 of Kevorkian’s victims found that only 16 were
terminally ill. Forty-eight suffered from non-terminal illnesses and
five had no evidence of any disease. No wonder he calls Kevorkian "a
serial executioner."
These executions were the culmination of Kevorkian’s lifelong
obsession with death and experimentation on the dead(and almost dead).
His Dr. Death nickname stems from the 1950s when, as a pathology
student, he made regular "death rounds," searching for patients about
to die and taping their eyelids open so he could photograph corneal
changes at the time of death. No word on if he obtained their
consent. In the 1960s, he experimented with blood transfusions from
fresh corpses, a venture that transmitted hepatitis C to a willing,
but naive friend serving as a recipient.
He spent years visiting prisons and corresponding with death row
inmates, seeking permission to perform invasive medical experiments on
them before their executions. He wrote that "it would be a unique
privilege to experiment on a doomed human being."
His macabre hobbies led to employment problems at various hospitals
and, in 1982, he retired to focus on his death obsession and build
suicide machines. In 1987, he decided it was time to get established
in the business of killing people. So, like any other business, he ran
classified ads: "Oppressed by a fatal disease, a severe handicap, a
crippling deformity? Write Box 261, Royal Oak, Michigan,
48068-0261. Show him proper compelling medical evidence that you
should die, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian will help you kill yourself, free
of charge."
His ultimate goal was to conduct experiments on people before, and
after, death. In his 1991 book, Prescription Medicide: The Goodness of
Planned Death, he wrote that the most satisfying part of assisted
suicide was "making possible the performance of invaluable
experiments."
In obscure European medical journals, he outlined plans for walk-in
suicide clinics where suicidal people would have the option of
undergoing experimental surgery prior to being euthanized. In 1997, he
harvested the kidneys from his victim and then called a press
conference to make the organs available for transplant.
That same year, Kevorkian showed a collection of 13 paintings. Each
was filled with images of cannibalism, detached body parts, severed
heads, rotting corpses and skulls. One even featured his own blood on
the picture frame. Not exactly material for the dining room.
According to the New York Times, some Kevorkian supporters who
attended the show saw their hero in a different light once they had
viewed his artwork. In the words of one shocked follower, "he’s a sick
person . . . " Now you know Jack.
Susan Martinuk’s Column Runs Every Friday.
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