Jack Kevorkian

Jack Kevorkian, born Murad Jacob Kevorkian (1928 to 2011), was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent, nicknamed Dr. Death. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, summed up in his words "Dying is not a crime", and said he had assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He was tried four times for assisting suicides between 1994 and 1997, acquitted three times with the fourth ending in a mistrial. In 1998 he was arrested and tried for murder after broadcasting the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease, and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999. He served eight years of a ten-to-twenty-five-year sentence and was paroled on 1 June 2007 on condition that he would not advise on, take part in or promote euthanasia. His case remains central to the dispute over the medical and legal limits of assisted dying.