Significant Dates
| May 26, 1928 | Born in Pontiac, Michigan - the son of Armenian immigrants |
| 1945 | Jack began his career by enrolling at the University of Michigan |
| 1952 | Graduated from the University of Michigan medical school with a specialty in pathology |
| 1956 | Publishes journal article; discussing his efforts to photograph the eyes of dying patients, a practice that earned him the nickname "Doctor Death." |
| 1961 | Publishes article in The American Journal of Clinical Pathology detailing his experiments on transfusing blood from cadavers to live patients. |
| 1970 | Becomes chief pathologist at Saratoga General Hospital in Detroit |
| Late 1970s | Quits pathology career, travels to California, and invests life savings in directing and producing a feature movie based on Handel's "Messiah." With no distributor, the movie flops |
| 1980s | Publishes numerous articles in the obscure German journal 'Medicine and Law' outlining his ideas on euthanasia and ethics |
| 1987 | Kevorkian placed newspaper ads for death counseling |
| 1989 | Jack invented his first death machine |
| June 4, 1990 | Kevorkian is present at the death of Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Portland, Oregon, woman with Alzheimer's disease. Her death using the "suicide machine" occurs in Kevorkian's 1968 Volkswagen van in Groveland Oaks Park near Holly, Michigan. This was Kevorkian first known assisted suicide |
| 1991 | Book: "Prescription: Medicine" was published |
| November 20, 1991 | The state Board of Medicine summarily revokes Kevorkian's license to practice medicine in Michigan |
| December 3, 1992 | The Michigan Legislature passes a ban on assisted suicide to take effect on March 30, 1993 |
| April 27, 1993 | A California law judge suspends Kevorkian's medical license after a request from that state's medical board |
| June 26, 1995 | Kevorkian opens a "suicide clinic" in an office in Springfield Township, Michigan. Erika Garcellano, a 60-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, woman with ALS, is the first client. A few days later, the building's owner kicks out Kevorkian |
| November 5, 1997 | Oregon residents vote to uphold the state's assisted suicide law, the first of its kind in the nation. The law allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients |
| He caused the death of Thomas Youk | |
| November 22, 1998 | CBS's "60 Minutes" airs a videotape showing Kevorkian giving a lethal injection to Thomas Youk. The broadcast triggers an intense debate within medical, legal and media circles |
| November 25, 1998 | Michigan charges Kevorkian with first-degree murder |
| April 13, 1999 | Convicted of second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance in the death of Youk, a Michigan judge sentences Kevorkian to 10-25 years in prison. He would be eligible for parole in six years. Kevorkian plans to appeal |
The Kevorkian Trial
On 13 April l999 retired pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Michigan, USA, to two terms of imprisonment for helping a man suffering from ALS to die. For the 2nd degree murder of Thomas Youk he received a sentence of 10-25 years and for using a 'controlled substance' (lethal drug) he was given 3-7 years jail, the sentences to run concurrently. A month earlier a jury had convicted him on both counts. The 70-year-old doctor, who is currently in prison, has said he will appeal to higher courts. The case achieved enormous notoriety, not only for Dr.Kevorkian's publicly acknowledging that he had already helped at least 130 other people to die by assisted suicide, but Mr.Youk's death in September l998 was by direct injection (voluntary euthanasia).
When the law enforcement authorities in Michigan did not move to charge Kevorkian with killing Mr.Youk, he took a tape of the incident to CBS Television, which aired it in the widely watched news program '60 Minutes'. On the program Kevorkian challenged prosecutors to act: three days later Kevorkian was charged with the offences. The legal case against Kevorkian was, of course, watertight because his video clearly demonstrated the process of injection. There was no question but that he was guilty in the eyes of the law. The law does not accept that a person can ask to be killed – as Tom Youk clearly did. It is still 'murder' legally. So, in an attempt to persuade the jury that his action had not been 'murder' but a justifiable act of mercy, Kevorkian defended himself. He sought 'jury nullification' on the grounds of humanity – something a lawyer may not do. Kevorkian was further hampered by the judge's ruling that he could not call the wife and brother of Tom Youk to confirm Tom's suffering and that the lethal injection was agreed by all three. (This aspect of the trial is likely to be one of the grounds for appeal.) On three previous occasions when charged with 'assisted suicide' the juries refused to convict Kevorkian against the weight of evidence. But that did not happen this time.
Soon after he started publicly helping people to die in l990, Kevorkian was stripped of his licenses to practice medicine in both Michigan and California.