Talk:Jack Kevorkian

Kevorkian: Hero or villain??

should there be arguments for and criticizing the actions of Kevorkian, or should that be more centered on the assisted suicide page?(Transcona Slim 04:22, 5 June 2007 (UTC))

Much more fitting here. As far as I can tell, it also needs some info on what the state of the patients were, beyond that they just wanted to die. Were they terminally ill? Depressed? Other reasons? Are there statistics on this? --Safe-Keeper 15:46, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Jack Kevorkian is a hero, not a villain. If someone want's too die, but is not physically capable, they should have the option of doctor assisted suicide. —Finny Kununsigned comment added by Finny kun (talk • contribs) 03:11, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Nobody in encyclopaediae are heroes or villains. You should all at least pretend the Wikipedia is more than a propaganda organ for every moronic media darling to float along. You don't argue in an encyclopaedia, you state facts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.13.47.4 (talk) 08:23, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

needs rewrite

Yeah.. this page needs to be completely rewritten. Someone with an agenda vanalized the hell out of it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.252.255.188 (talk) 01:17, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Abiguity in passage

The following passage I find ambiguous. Please edit... elpincha 13:48, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

(...) and in the end is not equipped to evaluate whether a prospective client is clinically depressed and therefore, according to accepted medical (and legal) thought, incapable of deciding to end his own life.

• The passage seems good to me, but if you dont't like it, why don't you go ahead and edit it yourself? Be Bold! --Blackcap | talk 17:23, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

I agree with him, it seems overly-wordy, though I understand it, it does take a bit of a pause to swallow :)

Bias - need for clarification.

I'd like to see some specifics on "including medical experimentation on patients".

The phrase has disturbing overtones which may not deserve to be there.

Clarification would help here: What are these experiments? Do some people find them disturbing? Who?

Anagrammarian 19:56, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Let's try Jack Kevorkian's own words from his own book!

"If we are ever to penetrate the mystery of death — even superficially — it will have to be through obitiatry...Knowledge about the essence of human death will of necessity require insight into the nature of the unique awareness or consciousness that characterizes cognitive human life. That is possible only through obitiatric research on living human bodies, and most likely by concentrating on the central nervous system...to pinpoint the exact onset of extinction of an unknown cognitive mechanism that energizes life."

You know... you wouldn't be asking this if you bothered reading the references at the bottom of the article!

bluespider 1:20 19 January 2006

I've looked for the 1988 Medicine and Law article by Kevorkian and it doesn't seem to appear in any of the sources listed at the bottom, nor is it readily available on the internet. Will check into this further.

I think you'd agree we could probably find some better sources, especially as many of the external links are not so much about Kevorkian as they are about assisted suicide in general. They are also from biased sources and advocacy pages. I would hope Wikipedia can do better than rely on these as unbiased primary sources of fact.

For instance, the Kevorkian quote you refer to seems to have come from the article by Wesley J. Smith, which prefaces that quote by saying, "On page 243, Kevorkian explained — and it was pure quackery:". Wouldn't it be better to cite a quote which was not from a polemical article written by an anti-assisted suicide author on the website of a unquestionably conservative magazine like the National Review?

I don't follow your point that "medical experimentation on patients" is necessessarily disturbing. There are plenty of medical experiments which are benign and uncontroversial (surely the majority).

Also there seems to be an issue here with copyright with that sentence anyway, which reads: "In 1988 Kevorkian's article, "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death," was published in Medicine and Law. In it, he outlined his proposed system of planned deaths in suicide clinics, including medical experimentation on patients."

Compare this to a sentence from a pbs.org site: "1988: Kevorkian's article, "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death," is published in Medicine and Law. In it, he outlines his proposed system of planned deaths in suicide clinics, including medical experimentation on patients."

Will change this so it quotes pbs page for now, although I'll try to find a copy of the actual article to compare.

In general, this page needs some work on dealing with an obviously sensitive and controversial issue.

Anagrammarian 23:38, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

So basically you deny that Kevorkian wrote something in the book.... because these views were highlighted and then insulted by Wesley J. Smith. You know sometimes you only find truth because someone with a particular bias looked for it. The "unbiased" Kevorkian article is vague, shallow, barely scratches the surface as to why and paints the subject as a kind, benign old man. The Smith article is not anti-suicide despite his beliefs. The Smith article is anti-Kevorkian.

Bluespider 11:26 January 23, 2006

BlueSpider, wouldn't it make more sense to edit the main page and provide the information that you deem necessary (with sources you deem accurate and with a neutral point of view, presumably) than to argue your case on the talk page? Wikipedia guidelines tell us to be bold, after all! Then more people can read it and edit (if they see fit) to attain the neutral point of view that Wikipedia strives for.

SeaworthyViolin 05:10, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

I did edit the main page as such. That was the cause of this argument on the Talk Page. My edits on the main page are/were factually accurate yet it was vandalized and removed because the facts, the truth actually violates Wikipedia NPOV ideology. I defend it now and attack the reverters because I can't really do anything else except cause a revert war. --Blue Spider 18:31, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

See also

Why is Henry Morgentaler linked to from this page? As far as I can tell from that article, he's merely an abortionist and not an euthanasia advocate- while some people surely believe that the two are one and the same, it's rather POV. -Seventh Holy Scripture 21:39, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

List of patients he's assisted and prior life

Does anyone have a list of patients he's assisted in ending their lives? Also, what was his occupation prior to becoming a public figure?

Before he became a public figure, Jack's intern was in pathology. His first year of residency was at the University of Michigan Medical Center, which he began after his release from active duty in the military.

Rsage 08:01, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

I'd rather not, citing Confidentiality, Notability (such a list is not needed), and the Right to Privacy. --Safe-Keeper 15:45, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Paroled in June?

According to CNN, he is up for parole in June. I thought that somebody with more information could add something about this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ryanizzle (talk • contribs) 16:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC).

Uh..what?

As of now, at the end of the first paragraph, it says "He died in prison on November 13th, 2006." Of course I attempted to correct this, but when I went to correct it, it said "He will be paroled" under "edit". I went back to the article and it still said "died". Uh, help? James 22:05, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Never mind. It's been changed. James 22:07, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Ummm...it's still f**** up. --68.149.181.145 01:09, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Discrepancy / Cultural references

Lead: "He was paroled early in December 2006"

Lower down: "on December 13, 2006 it was announced he would be paroled on June 1, 2007."

Having parole announced and actually being paroled are not the same thing!

Also, the "Cultural references" section is insane. We do NOT need a list of EVERY SINGLE TIME Kevorkian is mentioned in anything!! 81.159.62.16 13:08, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

I've removed the "Cultural references" section entirely. Trivia doesn't belong in most places on Wikipedia, and it certainly doesn't belong in a biography. If one of these trivia mentions is particularly iconic, to the point that it would itself pass WP:N, then it may make sense to weave it into the text. I doubt that, though. ··coelacan 20:49, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Medicine and Law

In the 1980s, Kevorkian wrote a series of articles for the German journal Medicine and Law [...]

AFAIK Medicine and Law ist not a German journal, it is released by the World Association for Medical Law based in Haifa, Israel. --80.128.130.236 14:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

temporal arteritis.

I do not think that "hardening of the arteries" is a good description of temporal arteritis which is an autoimmune-associated inflammation of the temporal and nearby arteries. Could we just remove the description and link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_arteritis ?

---

Kurt Vonnegut's "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian"

It may be important to note that Jack Kevorkian is an important character in Kurt Vonnegut's book "God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian", however I'm not sure where it could fit in with the current article. XHollywoodx 23:49, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

He is famous for his quotation, "dying is not a crime."

Gotta be a better way to put that. I mean, that's not what he's famous for.AustinDefense 04:04, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Removed Statement

I removed this statement from the article: "(Later autopsies on several of the individuals Kevorkian assisted in killing revealed that there were no signs of any terminal illness, and that the individual's main motivation to die was due to depression.)" An autopsy cannot reveal whether or not an individual suffered from depression, nor can it reveal their motivations for dying. While depression is a valid reason to want to die, and while it may have been shown that many of Kevorkian's patients did enlist his services for that very reason, that would have to have been revealed by something other than an autopsy. Perhaps medical records, or statements by Kevorkian or people who knew the deceased. --Cryptic C62 · Talk 01:47, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Thomas Youk - details please

There is no article on Thomas Youk, and I'm not sure there needs to be one. If somebody can dig up some details on Thomas Youk's condition and what led Jack Kevorkian to assist in his suicide, that'd be great. Right now, this article just touches on the subject and provides no detail specifically on Thomas Youk's case. --Zybez 17:17, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

no pictures?

?

Pop Culture References

The "Pop Culture References" section appears virtually unsourced, unverifiable, and basically trivial. I'm inclined to delete the whole thing. Are there any defenders of it? ·:· Will Beback ·:· 23:17, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Such a section, while seemingly common in wikipedia, is discouraged per WP:TRIVIA. Arthurrh 06:18, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I removed most of it. Left in the two non-trivial items --- second one could use a source. cab 04:30, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Played violin with Acid Bath

He certainly did not play violin on the song "New death sensation" because there is no violin in that song. I would love to believe that, but I believe this part should be deleted.Harmonic Minor (talk) 02:20, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Film

IMDB has a page for a film called Kevorkian Chronicles, a documentary scheduled for release in 2008. Should this be mentioned somewhere? Kitaro53085 (talk) 17:37, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

what a loser  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.128.60.221 (talk) 16:37, 18 April 2008 (UTC) 

Terminal Illness?

When Kevorkian was first paroled, news accounts (and the wikipedia article) generally stated that he was paroled in part because he was dying -- I think from pancreatic cancer. There is no mention of this in the article anymore. If that turned out to be a hoax, I think it would still be worth a brief mention (mainly because someone [like me] may be looking for more information on that). Does anybody have details and/or references? SkyDot (talk) 08:47, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Kevorkian's Jazz Album

I'm surprised this isn't mentioned on this page at all, but Dr. Kevorkian has an album with the "Morpheus Quintet" in which they play his jazz compositions and Kevorkian plays flute (and organ on a hidden track). It was released in 1997, it's called "A Very Still Life". Should this be put on the page? Or should there be a "Discography" section at the end that links to it's own page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.205.123.133 (talk) 20:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Oh please. "A Very Still Life"? Give me a break. Proxy User (talk) 08:40, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Post-parole life???

Is there anything to report on what Dr. Jack Kevorkian (and I live in Michigan by the way folks) has been doing since his 2 year parole period expired? It's surprising there's nothing on him on his OWN PAGE after Feb. 5, '09, especially since at that point he would have been just about 1 1/2 to 5 months from completing the mandatory probation period. So has he gone back to practicing or is he barred from practicing or what? I find it odd, and even slightly disturbing that there is no info about any of this...98.209.67.70 (talk) 06:27, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Nick names

Jack is usually a nickname for John. Is this the case here? If so then this should be mentioned in the lead. If not then maybe the last sentence of the lead should mention that Jack is his given name. Also, I think some mention of his nick name of "Dr. Death" be mentioned. One of the references uses that name in the title. Just questions for article improvement -- I don't think I'll be coming back to this page or the main article. WikiParker (talk) 21:39, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I was wondering the same thing about Jack/John, but couldn't find any sources. As for "Dr. Death", I don't know, but there would seem to be something awkwardly hyperbolic about it here, considering the association of "Dr. Death" with Aribert Heim. Cosmic Latte (talk) 18:38, 7 December 2009 (UTC)