MLive.com, MI
Nov 29 2007
Kevorkian discusses assisted suicide, prison reform in Detroit
11/29/2007, 4:46 p.m. EST
By COREY WILLIAMS
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) – Nearly six months after his release from a Michigan
prison, Jack Kevorkian still maintains he was right to help suffering
people end their lives.
The assisted suicide advocate also urged Wayne State University
students to be vigilant of government and a courts system he accuses
of being "dishonest and corrupt."
Wearing his trademark blue cardigan, Kevorkian was the featured
speaker during an often humorous, hour-long lecture Thursday
afternoon before more than 300 people on the school’s Detroit campus.
The topic of the program was billed as prison reform, but he didn’t
address that subject until 45 minutes into the lecture.
Instead, he talked about the U.S. Constitution’s 9th Amendment and
the importance of fighting for the rights it guarantees. Kevorkian
used the 9th Amendment to justify his right to help someone commit
suicide.
"I did my duty as a physician," Kevorkian said. "The person wanted to
die. He said: ‘Please help.’ I was a doctor. What was I supposed to
do, let them suffer?"
The 79-year-old retired pathologist claims to have helped at least
130 people die from 1990 to 1998. He completed eight years in prison
following his second-degree murder conviction in the death of a
52-year-old man with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Kevorkian is on parole for two years, and has promised not to help in
any other assisted suicides.
But his criticisms of the government apparently weren’t softened by
his prison stay.
"Right now, what I’m saying is dangerous for me because the tyrant
doesn’t like it when you infringe on his power," Kevorkian said. "Law
never creates rights. All the law can do is stop you from exercising
it."
He pointed to the law that prohibited the drinking of alcohol between
1920 and 1933, and included a thinly veiled stab at assisted suicide
opponents.
"You have the right to drink anything you want, cyanide even,"
Kevorkian said.
He also stressed the need for prison reform, where some type of
mediation is allowed between victims and those accused of crimes.
"Punishment doesn’t work," he said. "The system we have now is very
cruel and punitive."
Psychology student Charles Bell of Detroit said he agreed with many
of Kevorkian’s ideas, but he can see why others don’t.
"He goes against the norm," said Bell, 21.
The largely student audience gave Kevorkian a loud ovation at the end
of the lecture, with a dozen or more lining up afterward to meet him.
Kevorkian also is expected to speak Jan. 15 at the University of
Florida in Gainesville.
"My mission is simply to teach," he said.