Abstract
This report presents an update of the Kevorkian-Reding physician-assisted (or physician-aided) deaths to include the ninety-three publicly acknowledged cases as of November 25, 1998. These deaths are divided into ten distinct time phases. The following trends emerge. Over two-thirds of the decedents are women, the ratio of females to males varying widely with phase. The proportion of women seems to be highest when Kevorkian is free to act as he wants and lowest when he seems to be acting under legal or political restraints. Based on autopsy results, only 29.0 percent of the cases are terminal, this percentage being higher among men (37.9%) than among women (25.4%). However, 66.7% of the decedents were disabled, no significant difference emerging between men and women. Further, five out of the six decedents showing no apparent anatomical sign of disease at autopsy were women. Over 80 percent of the physician-assisted deaths are cremated, approximately twice as high a proportion as that emerging for suicides in Michigan and four times as high as cremations occurring with regard to overall deaths. Finally, death by carbon monoxide decreases dramatically with time phase while the use of the contraption dubbed the “suicide machine” increases, suggesting an increasing routinization over time. Finally, during the ninth and tenth phases, Kevorkian's aims and his own suicidality emerge more clearly, involving 1) harvesting of organs and 2) threat of starving himself in prison if he is convicted. Phase 10 can be seen as an escalation from assisted-death1 to overt euthanasia, repeating the same need for a demonstration (Thomas Youk) that was first exhibited in Phase 1 (Janet Adkins).
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