2. QUESTIONS!
When does life end? When is life not worth living?
How does one ends one’s life? The proper role of
medical personnel?
Mercy?
Or murder?
3. RAMON SANPEDRO
(January 5, 1943–January 12, 1998 )
• Quadriplegic in a diving
accident at the age of 25
– Athletic, adventurous young
man (echoes of Chris Hill?)
• Fought for his right to an
assisted suicide for the next
29 years:
– Could not kill himself without
help
– Lost all legal challenges in
Spanish courts
– Catholic Church an
implacable enemy
“Head in a bed”
6. "Your Honors, Political and
Religious Authorities"
“As you can see, beside me, I have a
glass of water containing a dose of
potassium cyanide. When I drink it, I will
be renouncing — voluntarily — the most
legitimate and private possession I own
— that is to say, my body. I will also have
freed myself from a humiliating slavery
— being a quadriplegic.”
8. 130 Assisted Suicides
Between 1990 to 1998
“Thanatron” and “mercitron”
(gas mask fed by a canister of
carbon monoxide. In 1991 the
State of Michigan revoked
Kevorkian’s medical license.
9. DR. KEVORKIAN
• Not exactly getting along well
professionally with conventional
doctors…
NOTE: These are
ACTORS, not real thing!
10. "I'm trying to knock the
medical profession into
accepting its responsibilities,
and those responsibilities
include assisting their
patients with death."
Jack Kevorkian
11. “First of all, do any of you
here think it's a crime to help
a suffering human end his
agony? Any of you think it is?
Say so right now. Well, then,
what are we doing here?”
Jack Kevorkian
12. “My intent was to carry out
my duty as a doctor, to end
their suffering. Unfortunately,
that entailed, in their cases,
ending of the life.”
Jack Kevorkian
13. “My aim in helping the patient
was not to cause death. My
aim was to end suffering. It’s
got to be decriminalized.”
Jack Kevorkian
14. “She made the decision that
her existence had lost its
meaning. And you cannot
judge that.”
Jack Kevorkian
16. "If we are free people at all,
then we must be free to
choose the manner of our
death."
Jack Kevorkian
17. "What he did is like veterinary
medicine. When you take
your pet to the vet, he puts
the pet to sleep. I think human
beings are more complicated
than that. I think he should
have his license revoked.”
Dr. John Finn, medical director of the Hospice of
Southeastern Michigan in suburban Detroit, told
The Times in 1990
18. "Kevorkian did this without
any guidelines whatsoever.
Physicians cannot just, willy-
nilly, assist someone in
killing themselves."
Dr. Melvin Kirschner, co-chairman of the joint
committee on medical ethics of the Los Angeles
County Medical Assn. and the Los Angeles County
Bar Assn., complained in a 1990
19. “IT’S EMOTIONALISM”
• A bitter critic of the organized religion that
has made him into a self-styled “martyr”… NOTE: These are
ACTORS, not real thing!
“Are we playing ‘God’?”
20. “Am I a criminal? The world
knows I'm not a criminal.
What are they trying to put me
in jail for? You've lost
common sense in this society
because of religious
fanaticism and dogma.”
Jack Kevorkian
21. “The American people are
sheep. They're comfortable,
rich, working. It's like the
Romans, they're happy with
bread and their spectator
sports. The Super Bowl
means more to them than any
right.”
Jack Kevorkian
