Attention-loving Kevorkian is an embarrassment to medicine

Megan Schimpf Prescriptions

Of all the famous alumni the University has produced, there are a few the admissions departments don't talk about. One of those is Jack Kevorkian, Medical School class of 1952.

Perhaps that's because Kevorkian no longer holds the medical license for which he trained. Or because he has been repeatedly disowned by the American Medical Association for gross ethical violations.

Or perhaps it's because the man is insane.

Making generalizations about what is "normal" is dangerous. How can a standard of normalcy be anything more than subjective proclamation? Consider Kevorkian's case.

Doctors who worked with him early in his career tell how Kevorkian asked to be paged when a patient was about to die so he could watch the moment of death.

Last week, the so-called Dr. Death said he helped a New York woman die in an unnamed Detroit-area church. The woman was one of more than 60 he has helped die; he has counseled hundreds of others, his lawyer says. The Roman Catholic Church has been one of Kevorkian's strongest opponents, and Kevorkian has said Jesus Christ should have chosen assisted suicide in his van rather than crucifixion.

Last month, Kevorkian announced phase II of his plan: he will provide organs for donation from his suicide victims to the first in line. As a trained pathologist, he lacks the expertise to remove an organ for donation, the facilities to preserve it and the agreement of any hospital or implant surgeon to complete the procedure.

Phase III, incidentally, is experimenting on willing subjects under "irreversible" anesthesia before death. Kevorkian set up his three-pronged plan in his 1991 book, "Prescription: Medicide."

This is not about physician-assisted suicide. That is its own issue, left to the quiet of a doctor-patient relationship. This is about Kevorkian, who has never been quiet and has made himself into his own issue.

He has said - watch the documentary currently on HBO - that he will violate any anti-assisted suicide legislation because it is "immoral." He has repeatedly demonstrated disregard for any authority other than himself.

Along the way, he has created a new image for patients with terminal illness, one of expendability and insignificance. He says he is their only help. He tempts with promises of control, scorn for a medical system that is only now learning to deal with long-term pain, compassion instead of for-profit insurance companies and an end to pain.

He is wrong, and he has caused great emotional stress among patients with the same illnesses as some of his victims. It takes them longer to cope with a diagnosis because they know some have given up. But terminal-disease patients are not useless to society nor the people who love them; there are sources of support and understanding. Hospice organizations help patients die comfortably at home.

But does Kevorkian respect his patients enough to call what he does mercy killing or is this simply his personal campaign to garner as much publicity as possible? Kevorkian takes the personal benefit over the person each time. Take the suicide he assisted the same day Gov. John Engler signed an assisted-suicide ban into law several years ago. Or the death of a depressed drug user who had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Or the patients who have made public statements supporting him soon before their deaths.

Ironically, his actions - almost every one makes news - are actually hurting the right-to-die movement, at least in some respects. Merian's Friends, a group trying to put assisted suicide on the 1998 Michigan ballot, has avoided associating with Kevorkian. His extreme, radical-on-a-mission behavior repels moderates and strengthens opponents' convictions.

He would help more patients have access to physician-assisted suicide by fading into the sunset with his suicide machine. But Kevorkian has never been one for the shadows.

Legalized assisted suicide, such as that recently supported by voters in Oregon, would create a higher authority. He would be obligated - theoretically - to follow regulations and standard procedures. This does not fit the Kevorkian persona.

Kevorkian puts himself at the center of an issue that should not revolve around him. It should focus on the patients and the medical system, not the crusade of an insane old man.

- Megan Schimpf can be reached over e-mail at mschimpf@umich.edu

11-20-97