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Kevorkian to be released
31/05/2007 09:33 - (SA)
Detroit - Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, whose controversial tactics earned him the nickname Doctor Death, will be released from prison on Friday after serving more than eight years for murder.
Kevorkian, who served time for the case of a man whose videotaped suicide was aired on national television, claims he actively helped 130 people die.
He had also said he will continue to lobby for the legalisation of assisted suicide but has no desire to go back to jail.
"It's got to be legalised. That's the point," Kevorkian recently told Fox2 News in Detroit. "I'll work to have it legalised but I sure won't break any laws."
The frail 79-year-old former pathologist will have to watch his words: the terms of his two-year probation prevent Kevorkian from counselling people on how to commit suicide and his parole officer will be monitoring his public speeches.
"His parole office will discuss any plans of what he has to say and they may ask for his written testimony or comments," said Russ Marlan, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Corrections.
"And certainly, we can Google him and find out exactly what he's saying."
Kevorkian forced the United States to confront the ethical issues surrounding how best to treat the pain and suffering of the terminally ill when he went public with his suicide machines in 1990 and the videos of his patients begging him to help them die.
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