Search results
In a small conference room at the Vista St. Clair Apartments in Portland Tuesday night, the family of Janet Elaine Adkins sat with tightly controlled emotions and talked about why the...
Jun 3, 2011 · Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the medical pathologist who willfully helped dozens of terminally ill people end their lives, becoming the central figure in a national drama surrounding assisted suicide, died...
Jun 7, 2011 · June 4 was the 21st anniversary of the death of Portland right-to-die advocate Janet Elaine Adkins. An English teacher at Portland Community College, Janet Adkins was an accomplished...
People also ask
Who was Janet Adkins?
Who killed Janet Adkins?
Did Jack Kevorkian want Janet Adkins to die?
What happened to Janet Adkins?
Jun 3, 2011 · Kevorkian’s first patient — or victim, depending on your point of view — was Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Portland, Ore., housewife who allowed herself to be hooked up to one of Kevorkian’s ...
- Who Was Jack Kevorkian?
- Early Life
- Strict Upbringing
- Early Career
- Crusade For Assisted Suicide
- Making Headlines
- Conviction and Imprisonment
- Illness and Death
Jack Kevorkian was a pathologist who assisted people suffering from acute medical conditions in ending their lives. After years of conflict with the court system over the legality of his actions, he spent eight years in prison after a 1999 conviction. Kevorkian's actions spurred national debate on the ethics of euthanasia and hospice care.
Jack Kevorkian was born Murad Kevorkian on May 26, 1928, in Pontiac, Michigan, the second of three children born to Armenian immigrants Levon and Satenig Kevorkian. Kevorkian's parents were refugees who escaped the Armenian Massacres that occurred shortly after World War I. Levon was smuggled out of Turkey by missionaries in 1912 and made his way t...
Levon and Satenig were strict and religious parents, who worked hard to make sure their children were obedient Christians. Jack, however, had trouble reconciling what he believed were conflicting religious ideas. His family regularly attended church, and Jack often railed against the idea of miracles and an all-knowing God in his weekly Sunday scho...
While serving his residency at the University of Michigan hospital in the 1950s, Kevorkian became fascinated by death and the act of dying. He made regular visits to terminally ill patients, photographing their eyes in an attempt to pinpoint the exact moment of death. Kevorkian believed that doctors could use the information to distinguish death fr...
After qualifying as a specialist in 1960, Kevorkian bounced around the country from hospital to hospital, publishing more than 30 professional journal articles and booklets about his philosophy on death, before setting up his own clinic near Detroit, Michigan. The business ultimately failed, and Kevorkian headed to California to commute between two...
But Kevorkian would become infamous in 1990, when he assisted in the suicide of Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Alzheimer's patient from Michigan. Adkins was a member of the Hemlock Society -- an organization that advocates voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients -- before she became ill. After she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Adkins began ...
In 1998, the Michigan legislature enacted a law making assisted suicide a felony punishable by a maximum five-year prison sentence or a $10,000 fine. They also closed the loophole that allowed for Kevorkian's previous acquittals. Yet Kevorkian continued to assist patients. Meanwhile, the courts continued to pursue Kevorkian on criminal charges. Not...
On June 1, 2007, after serving a little more than eight years of his sentence, Kevorkian was released from prison on good behavior. The former doctor also promised not to assist in any more suicides. Suffering from liver damage due to the advanced stages of Hepatitis C, doctors suspected Kevorkian had little time left to live. But Kevorkian soon me...
Apr 7, 2009 · Dr. Jack Kevorkian insists he didn’t want Janet Adkins to be the first to die on his suicide machine. And he certainly didn’t want their assignation to take place the way it did, where it did. He...
Jun 25, 2019 · In December 1990, prosecutors in Oakland County, Michigan, decided not to pursue murder charges against Kevorkian, following a ruling at a preliminary hearing, at which a judge said there was no proof he had planned and carried out the death of Janet Adkins, according to The New York Times.
