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  • 7/22/2025
A profile of Jack Kevorkian and the right to die issue he has come to personify.

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00:00This month, Dr. Jack Kevorkian goes on trial charged with violating Michigan's law against
00:13assisted suicide. Until now, Kevorkian has successfully eluded prosecutors, but now he
00:21must face a jury which will decide if he has the right to help people die. And the reason we'll
00:26win is because it's right. Most people, regardless of religion, race, creed, social standing, support
00:34this issue. Tonight on Frontline, in the past four years, Dr. Kevorkian has helped 20 desperate
00:41people end their lives. I want to take my life. I don't even know that. Not one of my patients
00:48feared death at all, not a touch of fear. They welcomed it. Frontline examines the evidence
00:54in Kevorkian's most controversial cases. Was suicide the only answer? I think it's a dangerous
01:01thing when a doctor is willing to take your life, for whatever reason. I think these 20
01:06cases are as much an indictment of our current medical system as they are of Dr. Kevorkian.
01:11Where are these people's doctors? Tonight, The Kevorkian File.
01:24Funding for Frontline is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual financial
01:31support from viewers like you. This is Frontline.
01:46Suicide machine. You know, Paul, a Michigan doctor, yes, devised a machine by which people,
01:53if they chose to, in dire circumstances, end their own life. Here now, top 10 promotional
01:58slogans.
01:59For the suicide machine.
02:00Yes, if they were to market such...
02:02Here we go.
02:04For nearly four years, the story of Dr. Jack Kevorkian has marched by as a loud and garish
02:10circus.
02:10Did Dr. Jack Kevorkian commit acts of mercy or murder?
02:14Just cry at once. That's all we ask. Number nine.
02:17An endless parade through county jails and courtrooms, trumpeted on morning talk, the evening
02:22news, and the late show.
02:25While I'm killing myself, I'm also cleaning my oven.
02:28The public drama has been fueled by a ferocious legal battle over Kevorkian's right to assist
02:34in suicides, and a macabre fascination with Dr. Death and his tools.
02:40If you're not dead in 30 minutes, it's free. And the number one promotional slogan for the
02:44suicide machine, we're not the heartbeat of America.
02:48But there is another Kevorkian story, hidden within the private struggles of the 20 men
02:59and women he helped to die.
03:02Their stories provoke the most profound moral questions about who should live, who should
03:07die, and who should decide.
03:10And they probe the most disturbing dilemma faced by doctors today.
03:14What is the role of medicine at the end of life?
03:17At the heart of each case, there is a remarkable videotape, Kevorkian's own recording of his
03:24final consultation with the life he is about to end.
03:27The first one was recorded nearly four years ago.
03:32I'm Dr. Jack Kevorkian, licensed doctor in Michigan and California and a certified pathologist.
03:42It is June 2nd, 1990. In a motel room just off Highway 696 near Detroit, Jack Kevorkian's sister
03:51turns on a home video camera.
03:52During conversation. First, I want to introduce Mr. Ron Atkins, who's the husband of the patient.
03:59How do you do?
04:00And we are here today to make this video and discuss some very serious matters which have
04:11occurred in our family and in our life over the last year.
04:18Could you introduce your wife?
04:20Janet Atkins is 54. She has Alzheimer's, an incurable disease that is eroding her memory
04:30and will eventually destroy her mind.
04:34Where do you live?
04:35In Portland, Oregon.
04:37Where is that?
04:40Where is Portland, Oregon?
04:41Portland, Oregon. It's on the west coast.
04:42West coast.
04:43Of what country?
04:46Health.
04:48All right.
04:49Yeah.
04:50Okay. You know it's on the west coast, right?
04:52Yes.
04:52Okay.
04:53What other state is on the west coast?
04:56California, also.
04:58Can you name one more?
04:59No.
05:00Washington.
05:01There you are.
05:02Okay.
05:05By all accounts, Janet had led a wonderful life in Portland.
05:09A classically trained musician, she taught at a community college.
05:13She had raised three sons and was now a grandmother.
05:18When her doctor diagnosed Alzheimer's a year earlier, he told Janet she might have only a
05:23year left before her life disintegrated.
05:27He went on to say that will mean that eventually Ron will have to pick your clothes out and Ron
05:35will eventually have to dress you, and eventually you'll have to be taken care of, maybe have
05:43diapers, and all these things were just devastating to her.
05:48Now, this is a woman that was vivacious.
05:50She loved life.
05:51She loved ideas.
05:51She loved philosophy.
05:53And then to have that.
05:56How has the process been going recently?
05:59Is it stabilized?
06:00Is it the same?
06:01Getting worse?
06:02Or what?
06:02How would you say?
06:04No.
06:04I think it's progressing.
06:05It's getting worse.
06:07Since January, how would you say it?
06:09There are, for instance, I have to, when she goes to play tennis, I have to call her up.
06:16In the morning, I have to tell her when she has to leave the house to go play tennis.
06:19If she plays at 10.15, she has to leave at 10.
06:21Then I have to call her, or she'll call me.
06:24Is it getting near that time to go?
06:26Despite the frightening loss of memory, there was much that Janet Atkins could still do.
06:31Just days before she went to see Dr. Kevorkian, Janet played tennis with her son and won.
06:38Clinically, she certainly had the disease, but it was in its early stages, and the disease
06:45had a long way to go in terms of years before she developed the type of disability that the
06:55public associates with Alzheimer's disease.
06:59Dr. Murray Raskin, an Alzheimer's specialist, told Janet she had several good years left.
07:05But Janet did not trust his more optimistic prognosis, and told Raskin she was determined
07:10to end her own life.
07:11She was afraid that if the disease progressed further, aside from the disability, that she
07:18would be considered, at some point, not to be competent to make her own decisions, and
07:22the option would be taken away.
07:25Janet and Ron, already members of the Hemlock Society, asked several doctors to prescribe
07:30pills she could use to kill herself.
07:32They all refused.
07:33And then Janet read an article about Dr. Kevorkian.
07:39For three years, Kevorkian had been advertising his services to help dying patients end their
07:44lives.
07:46He had even invented a suicide machine.
07:48Everybody here who's had a major operation in the anesthesia has been executed that way,
07:53and a lethal dose of potassium chloride.
07:56That puts you to sleep, then.
07:58That puts you to sleep, and then...
07:59Well, yeah, the audience feels a lot better now, Dr. Thank you.
08:02Kevorkian's sister, Margo Janis.
08:04He said, this is something I must do.
08:09It is my destiny.
08:12Of course, you didn't realize she is not terminal.
08:15Not in a physical sense.
08:16Okay.
08:17But mentally...
08:17But mentally...
08:19Months earlier, Ron and Janet began asking Kevorkian to help them.
08:23At first, he had put them off, recommending that Janet try a new drug therapy, but it didn't
08:29help.
08:29Do you want to go on?
08:31No, I don't want to go on.
08:32You don't want to go on living?
08:33I don't.
08:34Do you know what that means?
08:35Yes, I do.
08:36What does that mean?
08:37That's the end of my life, but whatever is next to me.
08:41What's the word for that?
08:41Oh, euthanasia?
08:43No.
08:43What is the word for the end of life?
08:46What happens when you stop living?
08:48What's it called?
08:49You're dead.
08:49All right.
08:50Is that what you wish?
08:51Yes.
08:52That's the word I want.
08:53Do you understand the implications of what that means?
08:55Yes.
08:56Okay.
08:57I think he wanted me to say, yes, I agree and will offer my support to your plan.
09:05Dr. Raskin says he told Kevorkian he was adamantly opposed to ending Janet's life.
09:10Because that's when I was stunned and somewhat angry, actually, that he'd taken this, what
09:17I considered and still consider, given the stage of her illness and the quality of her life
09:21at the time, to have been an inappropriate person for suicide in any way.
09:29And why do you want to do that?
09:31Why do you want your life to end?
09:35In other words, you feel it's better than going on the way you are now?
09:39Right.
09:40Because what's coming, you think, is...
09:43Now, I don't want to put words in your mouth.
09:45No, but...
09:45Because what's facing you is worse than death, you think?
09:48I've had enough.
09:49Enough.
09:50I've had enough.
09:51What does that mean, for example?
09:53Did you live well?
09:55Yes, I did.
09:56Well, Janet, in the name of rationality, human rationality, which you're beginning to lose,
10:08I have decided to help you on two days hence, on June 4th, the morning of June 4th.
10:19This is the last picture taken of Janet and Ron Adkins.
10:23No one wanted to see Janet die.
10:26When she separated from her husband to go with Jack, her husband's cries are still ringing in my ears.
10:35Janet, Janet.
10:37It was a cry of great, great desperation.
10:44He needed her and didn't want to lose her.
10:48Later that day, Janet Adkins lay down in the back of Jack Kevorkian's 1968 Volkswagen van.
10:57He tripped the switch on his suicide machine and whispered her final words.
11:03She was unconscious in 25 seconds.
11:06Kevorkian says he was stunned by the reaction to Janet Adkins' death.
11:10He had expected just to write a scholarly medical article about the case.
11:13What he got instead was a murder indictment.
11:16Criminal charges against Dr. Kevorkian are being considered.
11:22The suicide machine has been confiscated by the police.
11:24The Oakland County prosecutor charged him with murder.
11:27Kevorkian, unsupervised in his rotting van, deciding who should live and who should die.
11:31Prosecutors offered their evidence.
11:33A scene on a videotape made two nights.
11:35Kevorkian hired Jeffrey Figer, a tough and flamboyant Detroit medical malpractice attorney.
11:41Figer counterattacked.
11:42February 1st.
11:43Don't get nervous.
11:44I'm going to kick their ass.
11:46I promise.
11:47The murder charges were dropped.
11:48He dismissed the murder charges.
11:50The defendant was discharged.
11:51The doctor broke no law.
11:53There's no state law which says he committed a crime.
11:55He was ordered to stop using the suicide machine.
11:57He would not be allowed to use his machine again.
11:59Don't use the so-called death machine.
12:02As Kevorkian and Figer fought off the prosecutors, another physician announced that he, too, had
12:08helped a patient commit suicide.
12:11Dr. Timothy Quill, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, said he had prescribed
12:15barbiturates for a patient he called Diane, suffering from terminal leukemia.
12:21Diane lived for about three months after I gave her the prescription by which she could
12:27take her life.
12:28And she lived that time free of a fear that she would have the kind of death that she was
12:33afraid of, the lingering, dependent death.
12:37But at the very end, she was having high fevers, was having a lot of pain, was requiring more
12:43and more medicine to control her symptoms.
12:45So she met with me and said that this is where she was, and it was where she was.
12:51And then she said she was going to take the overdose in the next several days, which in fact
12:56she did.
12:58Despite his own actions, Dr. Quill criticized Kevorkian's handling of the Janet Atkins case.
13:03It's one of the most troubling kinds of cases.
13:06This is not a black and white case.
13:08She's not terminally ill in the sense that most people think of that word, even though
13:14she has something very real to fear in her future.
13:18So it's something that is on the very gray end of the spectrum and therefore warrants the
13:24most caution, getting to know her as well as you possibly could.
13:29Would you ever act with somebody, meeting them once or twice, over the phone or for
13:33an hour?
13:34Absolutely not.
13:36My view is that this ought to be an agonizing decision for a physician.
13:41This is only the last resort after you've really thought about and explored every other avenue.
13:47And it takes time and it takes expertise.
13:50In spite of the controversy, Janet Atkins' suicide changed everything for Jack Kevorkian.
13:56He received dozens of requests from people who wanted his help.
14:01Two women were at the top of his list, but Kevorkian waited.
14:05He wrote a book and appeared on more talk shows.
14:09And then he made another videotape.
14:11This is a videotape recording on Tuesday, October 22, 1991 at around 8 p.m.
14:28It has been 16 months since Janet Atkins' death.
14:30And we're here to discuss, actually, what's called physician-assisted suicide.
14:39And we're here to discuss the wishes of Sherry Miller.
14:4443-year-old Sherry Miller has multiple sclerosis.
14:48And Mrs. Marjorie Wants.
14:52Fifty-year-old Marjorie Wants has suffered with acute pelvic pain for years.
14:58Uh, Sherry, have you thought this over well?
15:03Yeah, I have.
15:04I thought about it a long time.
15:08Long time.
15:09Yeah, I have.
15:12And I have no problems about my decision.
15:16I could do it tonight.
15:18Do you realize, of course, the implications of your decision?
15:22Yeah, I do.
15:23What is the implication of your decision?
15:26There's no turning back.
15:29In the corner of the room is Sharon Welsh, Sherry Miller's best friend since childhood.
15:35She's a tiny, real short and tiny, but bubbly.
15:40And, uh, she was a nice person to know.
15:43She wasn't a cheerleader.
15:45She wasn't a class officer.
15:46But I'll bet 90% of the people, if you'd go back and ask, did they know who she was?
15:52They knew who Sherry Miller was.
15:55As adults, Sharon and Sherry remained friends, sharing the good times.
15:59And then about 12 years ago, the worst news of all.
16:03And my mom called me one day and said, Sherry's ill.
16:08And she has MS.
16:11And we just cried.
16:13We just cried.
16:14As the disease worsened, Sherry's husband divorced her and took custody of their house and their children.
16:22Finally, with nowhere else to go, Sherry moved back into her parents' house.
16:27The doctors couldn't help her.
16:29The doctors couldn't, uh, stop the progression.
16:34They couldn't make the MS go away.
16:36And she started telling me about a letter that she had written to this doctor that, um, helped people commit suicide.
16:47When you first contacted me, Sherry, did you write that letter by yourself?
16:50Yes, I did, yeah.
16:53Yep.
16:54Now you can't write at all.
16:56You can barely make an X, is that right?
16:57Right, yeah.
16:58You can't even direct your hand to the paper, can you?
17:00Sherry Miller had approached Kevorkian about the same time as Janet Atkins.
17:04But he was concerned Sherry's family did not yet support her wish to die, and so he put her off, too, and asked that she see a psychiatrist.
17:14But Sherry kept pursuing Kevorkian, telling her story repeatedly on television.
17:19She even testified for Kevorkian in the Janet Atkins case.
17:22I should have done something sooner when I was more, when I was capable of doing something on my own.
17:30That poor girl was in misery every day.
17:33And I really made her go on over a year with more misery.
17:37But the family, the folks came around then.
17:40That's, that's happened to several, uh, patients of mine.
17:43And, uh, I've been told they can't do anything.
17:47Every surgery has made me worse, especially the last one.
17:51How many have you had?
17:52Ten.
17:53Ten surgeries.
17:54In one spot.
17:56In one spot.
17:57And this time you left a needle up there.
17:59You won't take it out.
18:00No doctor will take it out.
18:02Marjorie Watts had also pursued Dr. Kevorkian for years,
18:06asking for relief from the excruciating pain she had suffered following surgery to remove some benign vaginal tumors.
18:13I've known her going on two and a half years now.
18:16And, um, I haven't, you notice I haven't done anything with her.
18:20Because I knew there was more to be done.
18:22Her doctors had to do more surgery.
18:24They had to have more, uh, pain medication.
18:27Well, when we were on television recently in the Dana show, uh, how has your situation been since then?
18:32Has there been any improvement at all?
18:34No.
18:34Has it gotten worse or not the same?
18:36It's gotten worse.
18:37Not even the same?
18:38Not even the same.
18:39I get a half hour, an hour of sleep at night with all the pills and sleeping pills I take.
18:44I go to bed all day long, most of the time, with sleeping pills just to get out of the pain.
18:50That's the only time I get out of the pain is when I sleep.
18:53Despite her pain, Marjorie Watts was not terminally ill.
18:58Authorities had tried to institutionalize her for mental problems.
19:01Psychiatrists said she was depressed and suicidal.
19:05Some felt her pain was psychosomatic.
19:07And later, when the medical examiner, Dr. L.J. Dragovich, conducted Marjorie's autopsy, he could find no physical cause for her pain.
19:17This pelvic pain, um, would have been, uh, uh, some type of phantom pain, uh, coming from her head, not from, from the lower part of her body,
19:29because she simply didn't have anything there and there was no disease processed.
19:34But Marjorie Watts was the only one who was not terminal, but probably the most justified of all.
19:40And for this reason, she, I, she was in the worst pain.
19:44She had the prospect of going through another 10, 20 years of pain that was unimaginable.
19:51I see her in her pain every day.
19:53Marjorie's husband tells Kevorkian his wife often screams through the night in pain,
19:58and that she has tried to kill herself several times.
20:00Uh, I have tried loading a gun, but I don't know how to load one.
20:06If I did, I probably would have, as Bill says, I probably wouldn't have succeeded,
20:12and I would have been in worse shape than I am right now.
20:16As the consultation tape rolls on, Kevorkian seems relaxed,
20:22very relaxed for a man about to enter another firestorm.
20:26But then Jack Kevorkian had been preparing for the role of Dr. Death for most of his life.
20:32In the 1950s, as a young pathology resident, Kevorkian asked to work the hospital's night shift,
20:38because more people died at night.
20:40He wanted to do some research to photograph the eyes of patients at the exact moment of death.
20:47They said, why are you looking in the eyes?
20:49It's before transplantation, see.
20:51I said, well, someday it'll be useful to know when the body had died,
20:55so how many minutes you got left to do so.
20:58Transplantation did it.
20:59Or now brain-dead people, you can tell by looking in the eyeball,
21:02if there's circulation to the brain, you don't need this $50,000 machine.
21:05He wrote papers arguing that men on death row, if they consented,
21:11could be put to sleep before execution.
21:14Experiments could then be performed on them,
21:16or their organs removed for transplant, and other lives could be saved.
21:22During the Vietnam War, Kevorkian experimented with another idea,
21:26transfusing blood directly from the dead to the living.
21:29Here's something that where a wounded soldier and a dead soldier,
21:33and you look at their dog tags, and if they got the same blood type,
21:36pump the blood from the heart of the dead man into the living man.
21:38So we wanted to test it in Vietnam, under battle conditions.
21:42Turned down.
21:45Kevorkian always seemed willing, even eager, to take a provocative stand.
21:49In the 1960s and 70s, his one-man show of surreal paintings
21:53featured titles like fever, genocide, and death.
21:57Kevorkian's death research effectively destroyed his medical career.
22:01By the time he invented his suicide machine in the late 1980s,
22:05no hospital would hire him.
22:08He's worked very hard all his life, and much of it without success,
22:15because the ideas were so controversial.
22:21Ironically, a patient's right to die was not the big idea
22:25that animated Kevorkian's unorthodox career.
22:27It was his search for anything useful, blood, organs, knowledge,
22:33that could be salvaged from death.
22:36And on the last night of their lives,
22:39Kevorkian tries to sell Sherry Miller and Marjorie Wants
22:42on donating their organs.
22:43The surgeons would take organs, because that's the way they prefer to get them.
22:47But the same way, option three...
22:49But the cuckoo clock cuts him off.
22:53Both women decline his suggestion
22:55and begin to question Kevorkian about his suicide machine.
22:59Here.
23:00There's a lot of tubes.
23:01A lot of tubes.
23:02Yeah, there's the salt solution, which we start.
23:09Needle injection into the vein for each of you,
23:12and then it's a fork.
23:13I had to make a Y connection.
23:15I couldn't hide it.
23:15But are we together?
23:16You're side by side.
23:17Okay, that's fine.
23:18And there's a little space between you.
23:19There's a stool.
23:19I got a little stool.
23:20And on the stool, I clamped the device.
23:22It's a mechanical device.
23:23Made out of wood.
23:23This is made out of wood.
23:24Not sheep.
23:25Kevorkian has set up this double suicide
23:27because he is not sure what police and prosecutors
23:30will do to him afterward.
23:32He has told the two women if he helps only one of them,
23:35he might not be around to help the other.
23:38Okay, well, then we'll bring this stool close.
23:40Thank you very much.
23:41All of you.
23:45Early the next morning,
23:47they all gathered at a rustic cabin
23:49in Bald Mountain State Park near Detroit.
23:52Marjorie Wants went first.
23:54And she was gone by use of the device
23:57within 10 seconds.
24:00It was a remarkable thing to see.
24:05She didn't move.
24:07It was so peaceful
24:08that I have said to my brother,
24:11that's the way I want to go
24:12if need be,
24:15if I am suffering.
24:17But Kevorkian was unable to insert the IV
24:19in Sherry Miller's veins
24:21and had to improvise with an alternate method.
24:24Carbon monoxide gas.
24:26In the case of Sherry Miller,
24:28so Jack said,
24:29okay, Sherry, you saw what happened.
24:32You can change your mind.
24:34We don't need to go on.
24:36We can come back another day.
24:37And Sherry just looked at him
24:40and raised her arm,
24:41the only one she could raise,
24:43and said, next.
24:46It was almost like,
24:47come on, you guys,
24:48I've waited long enough.
24:50Let's do this.
24:51And I held her head up
25:02and Dr. Kevorkian put the mask on her face.
25:05And she had already practiced pulling.
25:11The screwdriver was taped to a nozzle.
25:17Sherry wasn't able to turn the nozzle herself,
25:20but she could pull the screwdriver toward her
25:23that would start the gas.
25:28And, you know,
25:31I don't know whether Dr. Kevorkian said to her,
25:33whenever you're ready or exactly what.
25:38But she never hesitated.
25:41She just reached over and pulled it.
25:46And I remember going over to her
25:50and holding her hand.
25:54And you can still feel that warm hand.
25:59And I said to her, it's okay.
26:10And she was okay.
26:13She was finally at peace.
26:16Two women were found dead in a cabin.
26:20The double suicides outraged the prosecutors,
26:22and Kevorkian was again arrested on murder charges.
26:25Two women dead inside the cabin.
26:27Okay, he killed one person.
26:29Well, now he killed two.
26:30And so I thought, what's going to be the next one?
26:32You know, and what I was worried about was
26:34that each time he had to make it bigger and better.
26:36If Kevorkian is convicted...
26:37But Michigan still had no law against assisted suicide.
26:41And again, all charges were thrown out.
26:43With murder.
26:44Blistering verbal attack
26:45against the prosecutor.
26:48Since the death of Janet Atkins,
26:50the religious right had been pushing
26:52the Michigan legislature
26:53to pass a bill to stop Kevorkian.
26:56But the legislators were deadlocked.
26:59Meanwhile, the Michigan State Board of Medicine
27:01revoked Kevorkian's medical license,
27:04and the American Medical Association,
27:05which opposes physician-assisted suicide,
27:08condemned him.
27:09We have to question how much of this is being done
27:13for Dr. Kevorkian,
27:14for the opportunity to make his mark
27:17or at least have his name known.
27:19Dr. Kevorkian has been with people
27:22that he knew only briefly,
27:25whose physicians who knew them for longer periods
27:28made far different recommendations.
27:30And he's used those patients recurrently,
27:33because long after people will not remember
27:36who Janet Atkins was,
27:39or who Mrs. Watts was,
27:41they remember who Kevorkian is.
27:44Doctors were particularly critical
27:46of how Kevorkian handled the Marjorie Watts case.
27:49This is one of the most troubling cases
27:54from my point of view,
27:55just because it's so complicated
27:58that I have no doubt that Dr. Kevorkian
28:00doesn't have the skill to assess this kind of a patient.
28:04You would need a lot of real experts
28:06to get involved and provide some input.
28:10There's a lot of work to be done.
28:12Is her pain relieved as much as it possibly could be?
28:15Is depression or other psychiatric disorder ruled out?
28:19You know, in every way that's possible.
28:22And I think there's a tremendous room
28:24for wondering about that.
28:26Certainly not something you could assess
28:29based on one or two visits.
28:31But Kevorkian continued to act.
28:34He assisted another woman suffering with multiple sclerosis.
28:38Then two more women with cancer,
28:40a retiree with Lou Gehrig's disease,
28:43and a nurse with emphysema.
28:45When the Michigan legislature
28:46finally passed a ban on assisted suicide,
28:49designed to take effect on March 30, 1993,
28:53Kevorkian's pace quickened.
28:55A 53-year-old lumberjack with cancer
28:57became his ninth patient.
28:59Two weeks later,
29:00two more cancer patients died together.
29:03Then another woman with MS,
29:05and then patient number 13.
29:07We'll introduce ourselves.
29:10On my right is the patient,
29:12Mr. Hugh Gale.
29:15And I'm Dr. Kevorkian,
29:17and on my left is his wife, Cheryl Gale.
29:20It is January 26, 1993.
29:23The new law will go into effect in two months,
29:25and dozens of desperate people
29:27are clamoring for Kevorkian's help.
29:29Now, Mr. Gale,
29:32what is it that you wish?
29:34Put it in plain English.
29:38Really?
29:39What do you mean by reading?
29:41Well, I can't breathe, of course.
29:47And every day it gets worse now.
29:52Hugh Gale,
29:53a former merchant marine
29:54and a lifelong smoker,
29:56has suffered from emphysema
29:57for almost 20 years.
30:00Where you see me?
30:02This is my life right there.
30:03Right there in that chair.
30:04Yeah.
30:05And I've been in this chair
30:06for three weeks.
30:07Three years.
30:08I've been in that chair
30:09for five years.
30:11He has not slept in the bed
30:12for five years.
30:13You sleep in that chair?
30:14Sometimes he would pray.
30:16He would pray not to wake up.
30:19The wake-ups were very hard for him
30:21because while he slept,
30:23the mucus would accumulate
30:26and he would end up
30:27drowning in his own mucus
30:29when he woke up.
30:31I did it.
30:31Sit up.
30:34And he believed
30:37that man had kept him alive
30:41with the pulmonary machine,
30:43the oxygen,
30:45the medications,
30:46and that if God had taken him
30:49at his time,
30:51he would have died long ago.
30:55Family practitioner Carl Emmerich
30:58was Hugh's doctor.
30:59He was despondent.
31:01He was very outspoken
31:03of the fact
31:04that he was tired of living.
31:05He told me on numerous occasions
31:07that he was tired of all this,
31:09he was ready to die.
31:12That was basically
31:13what he wanted.
31:14And for how long
31:15had he been saying that?
31:17At least two, three years.
31:20I don't think
31:21his doctor knew
31:22how to respond.
31:24I don't think
31:25he was prepared
31:26for the statement,
31:27and I don't think
31:27he knew what to say.
31:30Hugh was a painter,
31:31and for years and years
31:33he promised
31:34to paint me a painting.
31:36And I remember telling him
31:37that you can't
31:39stop living yet
31:40and you've promised me
31:41a painting for years
31:42and you have to come through.
31:43And I,
31:45you use those type of things
31:47to try to give people
31:48a little bit of a boost
31:49and just try to,
31:50try to bring them up
31:52a little bit.
31:54No, I just,
31:56it just isn't there anymore.
31:59I can't paint anymore.
32:01Yeah, that's right.
32:02I saw your painting
32:02right here.
32:03Let's show his painting here.
32:05You've got some talent there.
32:06Yeah.
32:07And, uh...
32:08You don't enjoy
32:08that at all anymore.
32:09I can't.
32:10You can't paint at all.
32:11No, I put everything away.
32:13I see.
32:14And, uh,
32:15I couldn't, I couldn't,
32:17I can't get out
32:17in my garage
32:18and work with wood
32:19or anything.
32:20I can't even get
32:21to the garage.
32:23He was hoping
32:24to get some type
32:26of medication,
32:28pills.
32:29He had talked
32:30about pills.
32:31Um,
32:32I think he was afraid
32:34of ending
32:35his own life
32:36by himself
32:37because
32:39if he survived,
32:42it would be
32:43worse than death.
32:44If Hugh Gale
32:45would have said to you,
32:46could you give me
32:47some pills
32:48for my pain?
32:51Could you give me
32:51a month's supply
32:52and tell me
32:53how many I need
32:54and how many
32:55would be a dangerous
32:56dosage?
32:57Would you have
32:58ever done anything
32:59like that?
33:01That is not
33:02something that
33:03I would do.
33:05It's not something
33:06that the medical
33:07community is allowed
33:08to do.
33:09And, uh,
33:09I would have denied
33:10such a request.
33:13Has anybody
33:14ever asked you
33:14for that?
33:15There have been
33:18hints at times
33:18of people
33:19that wanted
33:20to use
33:21medication
33:22such as that
33:23for purposes
33:23that they
33:25really not
33:25intended
33:26that might
33:27end their life.
33:30You wouldn't do it?
33:32Um,
33:32wouldn't do it.
33:33No.
33:34Wouldn't do it
33:34and can't do it.
33:35It was very
33:40difficult for me
33:41at Christmastime
33:42because I didn't
33:44know what to get
33:45him.
33:45He couldn't go
33:46out.
33:47I asked my husband
33:48what he wanted
33:48for Christmas
33:49and he said
33:51to me,
33:51an appointment
33:52with Dr.
33:53Kevorkian
33:53is what I want.
33:56I know,
33:57I know I'm
33:58going to die
33:59but I,
34:02what I'm
34:03hoping for
34:04is
34:04I'll take
34:06my own
34:07way of
34:07going
34:08and
34:09the
34:10easiest
34:14way out
34:15I guess.
34:16You want
34:16help in
34:17ending your
34:17life?
34:17Is that what
34:18you want?
34:18Yes.
34:19He started
34:20getting nervous
34:20before you
34:21arrived and
34:21I said
34:22you don't
34:23have to
34:24make a
34:24decision.
34:25No.
34:26I said
34:26if you do
34:27make a
34:28decision
34:28you can
34:28change
34:29your mind.
34:29Right at
34:30the last
34:30moment.
34:31Listen,
34:32Mr.
34:32Gale,
34:33you've
34:33got to
34:33understand.
34:34You won't
34:35offend us
34:35at all.
34:36You can
34:36change your
34:37mind right
34:37at the
34:38last minute
34:38and it
34:39won't bother
34:39us at
34:40all.
34:40We'll be
34:40delighted
34:41because
34:41we're here
34:42to help
34:43you and
34:43we're not
34:44here for
34:44any other
34:44reason.
34:45And if
34:45you change
34:45your mind
34:46we're
34:46content.
34:47We're
34:47happy with
34:48it.
34:48Kevorkian's
34:49assurances
34:49are practiced
34:50and polished
34:51but his
34:52words would
34:52come back
34:53to haunt
34:53him.
34:54Hugh
34:54Gale was
34:55going to
34:55be
34:55Kevorkian's
34:56most
34:56difficult
34:57death.
34:57Very
34:57loving
34:58relationship.
34:59Okay
35:00then,
35:00understand
35:00how you
35:01enjoy
35:01yourself
35:02now and
35:02you two
35:03talk it
35:03over and
35:04you decide
35:04when you
35:05think it's
35:06time.
35:06We'll
35:06come and
35:06we'll have
35:07another quick
35:07session and
35:08sign the
35:08thing.
35:09Let's hope
35:09it's weeks.
35:10Let's hope
35:10it's a couple
35:11months.
35:11Three weeks
35:15later on
35:16Valentine's
35:16Day,
35:17Hugh
35:17Gale told
35:18Kevorkian he
35:19was ready.
35:21He slept
35:21the entire
35:22night.
35:23I was awake
35:24so I know
35:25he slept
35:25the entire
35:26night.
35:26I could
35:27not sleep
35:27but he
35:27did and
35:28he became
35:28very peaceful.
35:31Kevorkian
35:32arrived the
35:32next morning
35:33at 8.15.
35:34I felt
35:36like I
35:38was someone
35:39else or
35:41watching
35:42what was
35:43going on
35:44but I
35:46don't think
35:47I was there
35:48emotionally.
35:50If I
35:51didn't
35:52distance
35:53myself
35:53emotionally
35:54I
35:58wouldn't
35:58have been
35:59able to
35:59be there
36:00and he
36:02wanted me
36:02there and
36:04I wanted
36:06to be there
36:06for him.
36:08When he
36:09first put
36:10the mask
36:10on,
36:10Dr.
36:11Kevorkian
36:12had a
36:13clear plastic
36:14tent that
36:16went over
36:16his head
36:17and when
36:20Hugh put
36:20the mask
36:21on he
36:21had taken
36:21his oxygen
36:22off and
36:24he put the
36:25mask on
36:26and then
36:26the tent
36:29was put
36:29over.
36:31But the
36:32carbon monoxide
36:32gas was
36:33causing
36:34problems with
36:35Hugh's
36:35emphysema.
36:36he should
36:36have left
36:37oxygen on
36:38because he
36:39started into
36:40what seemed
36:41like one of
36:42these seizures
36:42that he
36:43had.
36:44He had
36:44pushed himself
36:45back into
36:45the chair
36:46and his head
36:48started to
36:49gasp and
36:50tremble.
36:51He said
36:52take it off,
36:52take it off
36:53meaning the
36:55tent.
36:55I took the
36:58thing off
36:58right away.
36:59I said
36:59Hugh,
37:00let's do
37:01this another
37:01day.
37:02Let's come
37:02back another
37:03day.
37:04Let's
37:04stop.
37:05He says
37:05he got his
37:07composure back
37:07and says
37:07no,
37:08no,
37:09today.
37:10I says
37:11I went in the
37:12kitchen and
37:12Cheryl came
37:13and I said
37:13Cheryl I don't
37:13want to do
37:14it again.
37:15And Cheryl
37:16says well
37:16he just
37:18he wants it.
37:19We waited and
37:20talked about
37:20half an hour
37:21in the kitchen
37:22and went back
37:23out and said
37:23Hugh we can
37:24come back
37:25and he said
37:25no,
37:26today,
37:26now.
37:28And we
37:30sat there
37:3015 or 20
37:31minutes and
37:32then Hugh
37:32said I'll
37:34leave the
37:34oxygen on
37:36this time.
37:39He said
37:39let's get on
37:40with it,
37:40I'm ready.
37:41So that's
37:42what he did
37:43is he left
37:44the oxygen
37:44and then put
37:45the mask
37:45on.
37:46over it
37:47and then
37:48he became
37:49unconscious.
37:53Are you
37:53unhappy
37:54that he
37:54did it?
37:56It was
37:56Hugh's choice
37:57and I
37:59can respect
37:59the man
38:00for making
38:00his decision
38:01and following
38:02through on
38:02it.
38:05Again,
38:05I think
38:06the political
38:07arena has
38:07made it
38:08very difficult
38:10for patients
38:10to make
38:11that choice
38:12and
38:13I respect
38:17the man
38:17for making
38:18his decision.
38:19But as
38:20a doctor?
38:24As a doctor
38:25I feel
38:26very strongly
38:26in patients'
38:27rights
38:27and in
38:29this country
38:30as being
38:32able to make
38:32one's choice
38:33and I think
38:34if that's his
38:35choice and
38:35that's the one
38:36he made,
38:36I would
38:37respect that.
38:37As a physician
38:39could you ever
38:39assist in a
38:40suicide?
38:42I hope I'm
38:42not asked.
38:4470-year-old
38:45Hugh Gale
38:45died in his
38:46home.
38:46Hugh Gale's
38:47death erupted
38:47into controversy
38:48when right-to-life
38:49activists
38:50discovered a
38:51copy of a
38:51document signed
38:52by Kevorkian
38:53which they said
38:55showed Gale
38:55again told
38:56Kevorkian to
38:57stop the
38:58procedure just
38:59before he
38:59lapsed into
39:00unconsciousness.
39:01As prosecutors
39:06launched a
39:06murder investigation
39:07Kevorkian's
39:08attorney argued
39:09that the
39:09doctor had
39:10simply made
39:10a mistake
39:11when he
39:11wrote the
39:12document
39:12and that
39:13Cheryl Gale
39:14confirmed that
39:15her husband
39:15did want to
39:16die.
39:17Are you
39:17listening to
39:18the Christian
39:19Defense Fund
39:20or are you
39:20listening to
39:21the people
39:21who are there
39:22who have
39:22no reason
39:23to lie?
39:25In the
39:26end,
39:26prosecutors
39:27believed
39:27Cheryl and
39:28no charges
39:29were brought
39:29against
39:30Kevorkian.
39:31For nearly
39:36three years
39:37Jeff Figer
39:38had been
39:38able to
39:38keep his
39:39client out
39:39of jail.
39:44Prosecutors
39:44say Figer
39:45is just
39:46blowing smoke.
39:48But Kevorkian's
39:48crusade was
39:49about to
39:50enter a
39:50whole new
39:51phase.
39:52Each death
39:53now would
39:53directly
39:54challenge
39:54Michigan's
39:55new law
39:55prohibiting
39:56assisted
39:57suicide.
39:58The state
39:59cannot
39:59blanketly
40:00prohibit
40:01suffering,
40:02dying,
40:03mentally
40:03competent
40:04adults
40:05from making
40:05decisions
40:06because then
40:07you're saying
40:08that the state
40:08has a right
40:09to require
40:10suffering
40:11because they
40:12own your
40:13life.
40:13Over the
40:14next six
40:15months,
40:15Kevorkian would
40:16assist in five
40:17more suicides
40:18to test that
40:19law.
40:20Michigan judges
40:21would throw out
40:21the charges
40:22in most of
40:22them,
40:23declaring the
40:23new law
40:24unconstitutional.
40:26In the end,
40:27Kevorkian would
40:27face trial on
40:28only one case
40:29for assisting
40:30in the death
40:30of his
40:31youngest patient.
40:32This is
40:33July 1st,
40:341993,
40:35and we're
40:36in Novi,
40:36Michigan at
40:37the home of
40:37Thomas Hyde
40:38and his
40:39wife Heidi.
40:4030-year-old
40:41Thomas Hyde
40:42has ALS,
40:43amyotrophic lateral
40:44sclerosis,
40:46Lou Gehrig's
40:46disease.
40:47And he was
40:48diagnosed when
40:49he was 29.
40:50Diagnosed when
40:50he was 29 years
40:51old, and now
40:52he's 30,
40:52and the disease
40:53has progressed
40:53rapidly in
40:54less than a
40:55year.
40:55Oh, yes.
40:56Quite bad.
40:57It'll be a year
40:57in August.
40:59It's progressed
41:00rapidly in the
41:01last three weeks.
41:02It'll be a year
41:03next month.
41:03Yes.
41:04It seems the
41:05more we get it,
41:06the farther he,
41:07or the longer
41:08he has the
41:09disease, the
41:10faster the
41:10progression is.
41:11I see.
41:12Heidi had first
41:13noticed something
41:14was wrong 14
41:15months earlier,
41:16about the same
41:17time their
41:17daughter Carmen
41:18was born.
41:20Like a couple
41:20little symptoms
41:21would happen.
41:22he would
41:23fall over
41:24on his
41:24motorcycle.
41:25He just
41:26couldn't keep
41:26it up.
41:29He couldn't
41:30hold his
41:30hammer at
41:31work.
41:31It was
41:31getting more
41:32difficult for
41:33him to even
41:33grasp something.
41:36Obviously, you
41:36try to give as
41:37optimistic a
41:38picture as you
41:39can.
41:39Dr. Lewis
41:40Rents was
41:41Tom's doctor.
41:42Short periods
41:42of time, you
41:43know, he went
41:44from walking,
41:45a little slurred
41:45speech, some
41:46clumsiness, to
41:47a wheelchair,
41:49without the
41:50ability to move
41:51his arms,
41:52or legs in
41:54less than a
41:55year.
41:56Can you
41:57stretch your
41:57fingers out?
42:00Okay, can you
42:01make a fist now?
42:04The right arm is
42:05definitely weak,
42:06isn't it?
42:06Yes.
42:07Okay, don't
42:08strain too much
42:09now.
42:09Don't strain.
42:10Conserve your
42:11editor so you
42:12know you've got a
42:12cramp.
42:12Now he's getting
42:13cramps, right?
42:14Okay, we're not
42:14going to go any
42:15further with the
42:15physical thing.
42:16He had come down
42:18to, in his last
42:19visit, he was
42:21having to face
42:22the concept of
42:23a feeding tube
42:24because he
42:24couldn't swallow
42:25as well, and
42:26where he had to
42:27start dealing
42:28with the concepts
42:29of whether or
42:29not he would
42:30have a respirator
42:31or something to
42:31breathe for him.
42:33So it was
42:34getting bad.
42:35Yes.
42:36But he never
42:37talked suicide?
42:38Not to anyone
42:39that I know of.
42:39But at home,
42:42Tom began to
42:43talk to Heidi
42:44about ending
42:44his life with
42:45a drug overdose.
42:47But he didn't
42:48think he could
42:48swallow pills
42:49any longer.
42:51His doctors
42:52were offering
42:52hospice care,
42:53but Tom decided
42:54to write to
42:55Dr. Kevorkian.
42:58I said,
42:59honey, don't
43:00get your hopes
43:00up.
43:01It's against
43:02the law now
43:02here.
43:03You know,
43:03you know that.
43:04And I was
43:05really afraid that
43:06Tom was going
43:06to be disappointed.
43:07And this really
43:08was his last
43:09attempt at
43:10helping himself.
43:14But Kevorkian
43:14answered Tom's
43:15letter.
43:16Well, Tom,
43:18what is it you
43:19wish?
43:20Tell me your
43:20wish in plain
43:21English.
43:29Come on.
43:32Come on.
43:39Take your time.
44:07Take your time.
44:08I guess I have a
44:38basic prejudice
44:39that a physician
44:41should not be
44:42involved in taking
44:43life.
44:43We can allow it
44:44to happen,
44:46but the Lord
44:47giveth and the
44:47Lord taketh away.
44:49I think it's a
44:50dangerous thing
44:51when a doctor is
44:52willing to take
44:52your life for
44:53whatever reason.
44:55Could Tom
44:56Hyde have killed
44:56himself all by
44:58himself?
44:58I guess Tom
45:00would have had to
45:03have had to have
45:03some way to
45:04kill himself.
45:06He didn't have
45:07the physical
45:08resources,
45:09I don't think,
45:10to pull the
45:11trigger.
45:11I don't think he
45:12could have,
45:13I suppose he could
45:14have figured out
45:15some way to do it
45:16if he'd have wanted
45:17to without some
45:19help.
45:19But it would have
45:20been difficult,
45:21I think,
45:21for Tom,
45:23other than if he
45:24had waited and he
45:26had not eaten and he
45:27had not had any
45:29fluids and he
45:30were in pain and
45:32we sedated him or
45:33gave him medications
45:35to relieve that
45:36discomfort, Tom
45:37would have died in a
45:38very short period of
45:39time.
45:40So he could have
45:41stopped eating and
45:43refused hydration.
45:45The pain would have
45:46ensued, you could
45:49have prescribed
45:49something that would
45:50have made that more
45:51comfortable, and then
45:53he would have died.
45:55Yes.
45:57Is that assisted
45:58suicide?
45:59No, it's not.
46:02Is there anything
46:02else that we, you
46:04want to add to this
46:05or have Heidi tell us,
46:06or Heidi, is there
46:07anything you want to
46:07add before we
46:08conclude this discussion?
46:09I want time to be free.
46:16I want time to be free.
46:24My wife doesn't
46:25help me too long.
46:26on August 4th Heidi and Tom spent their last morning together I got him up and that's when
46:48we and I got helped him up and I got his clothes on for him and and then he went over and I walked
46:54out here and he was over by the crib and he was crying and crying very hard with Carmen and I
47:01went in there and it was pretty sad so we cried a lot when they came I got him into his wheelchair
47:22and wheeled him out to the car and it was almost euphoric not happy it was dreamlike by then it
47:39was clear to dr. Kevorkian that anyone besides himself who was in attendance at the very last
47:47was subject to prosecution so he said he recommended to Heidi that she not be present
47:56they said their goodbyes outside of their apartment and then Jack and then Jack went to another location
48:05in his van and that's where the event took place Kevorkian drove Hyde 45 minutes to Belle Isle a park
48:17near downtown Detroit I went to pick up the phone like in normal everyday phone call and he says hi
48:25Heidi this is Jack and I just want to let you know everything went well and I said okay and he said he
48:33wanted to talk to Margo so I said okay and I handed the baby to Margo and I thought how well can something
48:39like that go and I went into the bathroom and it was a rush of emotion that I have never experienced in
48:46my life I assisted Thomas Hyde in a merciful suicide there's no doubt about that I stated emphatically
48:56can you understand why some people would go to dr. Kevorkian why they would be drawn to him
49:03it's a puzzle to me I must admit it's a puzzle to me because frankly the whole process that he
49:13goes through seems a little sensational and a little tawdry I I think if I wanted to die you'd sort of
49:22fantasize some very great last experience and then slip away comfortably not being parked in the
49:32back of a rusted Volkswagen van doing some relatively unpleasant unesthetic thing to die but for dr.
49:46Timothy Quill there is no mystery about Kevorkian's appeal I say that's probably a pretty sad indictment
49:54of the doctors that they have seen before I mean I think people are genuinely scared about what might
50:00happen to them not everybody but many people have particularly people who have witnessed hard deaths
50:06or who were in the throes of this kind of an illness and and it must be a relief to come in
50:13and have somebody who will talk to you about that who will acknowledge that it exists that there's
50:18a real problem here I think these 20 cases are as much an indictment of our current medical system as
50:25they are of dr. Kevorkian where are these people's doctors these conversations the conversation that
50:32each of these individuals had with dr. Kevorkian should have been happening with their doctor the
50:37doctor is going to work with them throughout the end of their life no matter what path they choose
50:43all the survivors that I've met I've become very close with we can put our arms around each other and we
50:57can feel what each other feels because we've been through the same thing on Super Bowl Sunday the
51:07families of Kevorkian's patients gathered to remember their loved ones and to celebrate the man who gave
51:13them death dr. Kevorkian isn't mainline and Janet wasn't mainline and major changes in society never occur
51:23by mainline people it's the people that are different the people that are willing to risk all to two for
51:31up for an idea and for a principle Kevorkian still faces charges in the Thomas Hyde case and he has
51:41promised not to assist in any more suicides until the higher courts rule on the constitutionality of
51:46the Michigan law Kevorkian is now leading a political campaign to change the Michigan law he
52:02will be successful and someday the world will still remember a little Armenian doctor by the name of
52:09Jack Kevorkian who was brave and who changed the world in this little way for the better I think
52:17he's raised consciousness but he's also scared the heck out of people 20 patients a lot of patients we
52:23have a tendency in our culture to seek a quick fix for things that are very complicated and if you want
52:29a quick fix Jack Kevorkian's the man that's it and and this is not the kind of decision you want a quick
52:37fix for it if the lives and indeed the death and the suffering of Janet Adkins of Marjorie Watts of
52:49Sherry Miller when you witness the hard death it changes you in a fundamental way you no longer see
52:55this as a simple issue you can't say it's simple doctors should never get involved in this because
53:01it's so compelling and terrifying of Marty Ruart of Ron Mansoor of Thomas Hyde after Tom died I realized
53:16what a gift Jack had actually given to him at that point it's all Tom wanted and I couldn't deliver it
53:23but somebody else could and I began to love this person because they helped Tom I think he has tapped a
53:40nerve in the public now people are having a chance to reflect a little bit on gee we probably don't want
53:48what dr. Kevorkian is doing but we also don't want an environment where doctors are afraid to assist at
53:56all so what do we want that's the real question of Jonathan Grans of Marty Ruart of Ron Mansoor of Thomas Hyde of Donald
54:12Don't keep
54:19you
54:21you
55:42This is PBS.