Anna Lopp Jack Kevorkian
Have you ever heard of the act of euthanasia? Are you an advocate of it? Seven out of ten Americans agree and support doctors and terminally ill patients who wish to be out of pain. Jack Kevorkian was an American doctor who was one of the most determined advocates of assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. He was most famous for helping many sick patients commit suicide. He was a strong advocate for a patient’s RTD, or “right to die”. Kevorkian helped more than 130 people die from 1990 to 1998. Most of his patients were middle-aged women.
Jack was born on May 26, 1928 in Pontiac, Michigan to Armenian immigrants, Levon and Satenig Kevorkian. He was the middle child of three, consisting of two girls and one boy. Jack Kevorkian had a strict upbringing. His parents were religious and were extremely committed on making sure their children were compliant Christians. Jack’s family attended church consistently. They went twice a week. Jack “had trouble with the whole Christian
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His first device was called the “Thanatron”. This machine had a button you push and then the fluids went through an IV connected to the arm. The fluids were in three bottles. One contained saline, a sleep- inducing chemical called sodium thiopental, and potassium chloride which stopped the heart immediately. Dr. Kevorkian could only assist two deaths with the “Thanatron” before the state of Michigan would no longer allow him access to the substances. Jack came up with a new plan. He decided to build a new machine with different substances that acted in a different way. He called it the “Mercitron”. This one had a mask rather than an IV. The mask, when triggered, released carbon monoxide which took about ten minutes to kill the patient. Both machines let patients trigger their own death, which got rid of the risk of Kevorkian being convicted of