Detroit News, MI
Nov 29 2007
Kevorkian talks assisted suicide, prisons
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
DETROIT — Jack Kevorkian told a packed Wayne State University
auditorium that it is not illegal to help people kill themselves and
the only reason he was jailed for doing so was because of a corrupt
legal system.
Kevorkian, wearing a maroon, blue and white striped tie, white shirt
and his trademark baby blue sweater, told the crowd of about 250
people this afternoon that the nation’s penal system needs an
overhaul and that young people need to more aggressively fight for
the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The amendment, Kevorkian said, basically gives Americans the right to
do as they please providing it does not cause harm to another person.
"If you think someone else is going to preserve your liberty, you are
sadly mistaken," Kevorkian said. "I mean sadly mistaken."
Kevorkian’s visit was free to attend, but about 40 students were not
able to get into the auditorium because it was at capacity, campus
public safety officials said. The university’s Criminal Justice
Department, Criminal Justice Club and WSU Student Council sponsored
the visit. They paid a few hundred dollars, department officials
said, but did not say exactly how much Kevorkian received.
Kevorkian, nicknamed Dr. Death in the media, was released from prison
in June. He was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder and
delivering a controlled substance for an assisted suicide.
Kevorkian joked that he is a pathologist forced into early
retirement.
He said a good physician does what he or she can to help a patient
feel better, even if that includes helping the person die. He has
claimed to have helped more than 100 people kill themselves.
"I did my duty as a physician," Kevorkian said of the people he
assisted in killing themselves. "I didn’t think it was going to blow
up into that big thing (a national controversy). I would have done it
anyways."
He also said the only way to help people who commit crimes is to take
away punishment as it is handled now. Kevorkian advocates a system in
which the offender and victim talk about what happened and a peaceful
resolution is reached without incarceration.
"Where would Christianity be today if Christ got off for good
behavior," he jokingly asked.
WSU student Daniel Rinke, a 45-year-old Detroiter, said the visit was
a memorable one.
"It makes a lot of sense," he said of Kevorkian’s views.
Kevorkian was to speak for an hour, but fielded questions and
comments for an additional 30 minutes.