Kevorkian, Dr. Death, Passes Away at 83

             Jack Kevorkian finally experienced first-hand the subject that consumed his life. Death, Kevorkian earned his name for his advocacy of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. He claims to have helped more than 130 people commit suicide between 1990 and 1998. However, he served an eight-year prison sentence for second-degree murder for a case in which he personally administered the lethal injection rather than helping the patient to do it himself (McLellan). .
             Kevorkian's obsession with death began early in his life. He was born on May 26, 1928 in Pontiac, Michigan to Armenian refugees. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he excelled in languages - particularly Japanese and German - but chose to pursue a career in medicine, specifically pathology, the study of disease. After graduating in 1952, he volunteered in the Army and served as a medical officer in Korea. He was discharged three years later and returned to his alma mater's Medical Center to begin his first year of residency in pathology. There his obsession with death grew drastically as he conducted independent death-related research by setting up an electrocardiogram and a small camera next to patients to record the change in retinas of their eyes to pinpoint the exact time of death (McLellan). .
             "His theory could assist pathologists, forensic psychiatrists and police forces in solving homicides and convicting perpetrators," wrote Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie in their book Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia (McLellan). .
             Because of his research on death, the nurses, who thought Kevorkian was "creepy," referred to his research as "the doctor of death's death rounds," dubbing him Dr. Death. .
             In 1958, Kevorkian first began to stir up controversy in the medical industry by presenting a research proposal for conducting medical experiments on consenting death row inmates while under deep anesthesia just before the executioner administered the final overdose.