Physician Assisted Suicide Case Study

Moreover, Mr. Jack Kevorkian had a major impact on physician assisted suicide. He was a strong advocate for PSA, and he was very influential on whether PSA should be legalized. He advocated for this legal right to choose and supported the legalization of PSA. Mr. Kevorkian was most well known as “Dr. Death” because he had assisted in about a 130 suicides. He started working in euthanasia and death during the 1980s. He had dove into this topic after seeing his mother deteriorate from cancer, and he felt she shouldn’t have gone through that horrific process. She was a major influence on what was to come with Mr. Kevorkian. His various antics and unique personality caused him to bring a jovial light to this dark topic. He created various contraptions …show more content…
Patients used these contraptions, so they could end their life the way they saw fit. The first person Mr. Kevorkian helped was Janet Adkins of Portland,Oregon who had Alzheimer's. She came to Mr. Kevorkian after an unsuccessful clinical drug test. In her case, the disease did not debilitate her, but she did not want to live if it could not be treated. There were many court cases against him doing this, but since his methods were self-administered he got away scott free. However, in 1998, he was charged with the murder of Thomas Youk due to video evidence of him administering the drug which killed Youk. Later in 2008, he was let off on good behavior and soon after died due to a blood clot. Although some viewed him as a god sent, others believed he was only helping the depressed not the terminally ill. He was the only person who decided to take matters into his own hands and do the right thing for these suffering people. He was allowing them to have a choice whether or not they wanted to live. He did not want to deny them a right that he thought should be