Jack Kevorkian

"Jack Kevorkian, M.D., Bioethics and Obiatry. Special Death Counseling". This is not the average verbiage one would expect to see on a business card, but it is what Jack Kevorkian began to put on his cards in 1988, two years before his first assisted suicide. Kevorkian defines obiatry as "going to one's death with the aid of a doctor". Kevorkian began his studies into assisted suicides long before he became famous for the act of aiding ill patients in the act of suicide. Kevorkian, who would later be known as "Doctor Death," has been held up by the media for the last decade as the poster child for doctor assisted suicide. It is clear through looking at Kevorkian from the beginning of his medical career that he has never feared the consequences of his actions on a legal level.

In 1952, Jack Kevorkian graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. In his undergraduate programs Kevorkian was known to be a good student. It was during his time at the University of Michigan Medical School that Kevorkian began to express his differing ideas on death related issues. For instance, Kevorkian had brought up the ideas to his professors that death row inmates should be used for scientific experiments and that soldiers on the battle field that have been mortally wounded should be hooked up to other wounded soldiers in order to provide them with blood. Kevorkian became so outspoken with his ideas that instructors threatened to expel him from the institution if he did not back down on the issues.

In 1988 Kevorkian quit practicing medicine and approached the Hemlock Society to join in his idea of an assisted suicide clinic for people to come to. Hemlock did not want to become involved in Kevorkian's idea due to the negative publicity that he believed the clinics would receive. That was the last contact that Kevorkian made with the Hemlock Society in regards to the subject. Since, Kevorkian did not have the financial backing of Hemlock he went ahead on his own by building a death machine out of materials that can mostly be found at a hardware store. After Kevorkian had successfully built his first suicide machine he was ready to test it on a human being.