Jack Kevorkian and the '60 Minutes' face of death

A few years ago, a video series called "Faces of Death" became a quiet, straight-to-video hit in my hometown.

The tapes feature titillating deaths caught on videotape - executions, sudden falls and the like. They were packaged in boxes to appeal to horror-movie fans. I never rented any of the "Faces of Death" tapes, but during my first two years of high school, they infrequently surfaced in conversation.

The idea of these tapes disturbed me. It still disturbs me. I grew up fascinated with "Goodfellas," "Full Metal Jacket" and "The Godfather" movies, but for the streams of violence in those films, it was always obvious that they were the results of production. There was a moral message behind them. And if they did offer a hint of gruesome excitement, the violence was clearly fiction.

"Faces of Death" and the mail-order legacies it spawned lack this barrier. They mix actual footage with recreation, doing so with the intent of entertainment. Someone slipped, then died; someone else packaged it as excitement, then profited.

Enter Jack Kevorkian. Eleven days ago, America's most prolific proponent of casual killing surfaced on "60 Minutes," with an agenda, a threat and his own face of death.

Kevorkian's already-famous footage is excruciating. It features several seconds of the good doctor questioning Thomas Youk, a Waterford Township man in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian prodded him about whether or not he wanted to die. Youk, visibly suffering, had little doubt in his mind, but ultimately decided to delay his death a few days.

From there, cut to Kevorkian administering Youk's death, injecting him with potassium chloride and muscle relaxers, camera ticking as his subject's body shuts down, Kevorkian finally informing us that the heart had stopped.

One thing is certain: The episode isn't titillating. It was clinical, cold and frightening. Kevorkian wanted to reach an audience, and he succeeded.

Meanwhile, "60 Minutes" garnered its best ratings of the season so far, a distinction that may ultimately do this venerable television institution more harm than good. The gem of the network news industry, "60 Minutes" has long stood apart from its more sensational competitors. After this story, the show appears every bit as hungry and shameless as its competition.

A CBS press release insists the program "performed a valuable public service."

CBS is wrong. I don't know if it's deluding themselves or if they're just being manipulative, but there was no public service involved.

Kevorkian provided killing as a publicity stunt. CBS news took the bait. Kevorkian expressed hopes that the incident will spark national discussion over euthanasia. What it sounds like instead is a game of chicken between the doctor and his nemeses in law enforcement.

"They must charge me, because if they do not, that means they don't think it was a crime. ... Either they go or I go," Kevorkian said. "If I'm acquitted, they go, because they know they'll never convict me. If I'm convicted, I will starve to death in prison, so I will go."

Does this sound like an important debate? Does it sound like a valuable public service?

People promoting debate don't threaten slow death if their cause is not accepted by the legal system. This is not a man concerned with deciding an issue on logical grounds. And he has made it very difficult to differentiate the cause from its messenger.

The "60 Minutes" debacle provided us a bullying, attention-seeking outburst from a man whose crusade is under fire.

After all, Kevorkian lives just up the freeway. Last month, voters in the state turned down Proposal B, which would have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Less than three weeks before Youk's Sept. 17 death, state lawmakers passed a law making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Public opinion on assisted suicide - as well as euthanasia - isn't necessarily running against Kevorkian, but for the time being, his cause is pinned in a corner. The spectacle he launched on "60 Minutes" may be a literal, horrible shot in the arm to his cause. If nothing else, we've learned that televised death draws public attention.

Between car commercials, NFL football and "Touched By An Angel," 15.6 viewers spent a few intimate moments with a man whose suffering was reduced to propaganda. I never thought I'd see such a thing; I certainly never wanted to.

"Faces of Death" and the ill-considered "60 Minutes" are two sides of the same coin. This is not solely an issue about public debate, or privacy, or exploitation, or the legality of euthanasia - it's about dramatically cheapening our understandings of life and death.

-Jeff Eldridge can be reached over e-mail at jeldridg@umich.edu

Jeff Eldridge Stick and Stones

12-03-98