Jack Kevorkian (also called “Dr. Death”)

Jack Kevorkian (also called “Dr. Death”) achieved notoriety and a prison sentence by assisting terminally ill people in committing suicide. He provided them

with a specially designed machine that allowed them to push a button and release a fatal dose of anesthesia into their bloodstream. Kevorkian believed that

what he did was not immoral. In fact, he spoke of the “goodness of planned death” and dismissed criticisms of him as “emotionalism.” Discuss the ethical

questions surrounding Kevorkian’s medical “specialty.”

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