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Catholic World News News Feature

Study Says Majority Of Kevorkian Victims Not Terminally Ill December 07, 2000

PONTIAC, Michigan, Dec. 7, 00 (CWNews.com) - A new study of 69 people who were killed by assisted suicides performed by Jack Kevorkian has found that only 25 percent were terminally ill and five had no physical problems.

The study, described in a letter published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, also found that more women than men sought Kevorkian's help in ending their lives. Researchers only looked at the 69 people who died with Kevorkian's help in Michigan's Oakland County because the autopsies were done by the same medical examiner's office. They ranged in age from 21 to 89. Kevorkian has claimed to have helped more 130 people die between 1990 and 1999, and he was convicted last year in the 1998 death of terminally ill man.

According to the analysis, autopsies determined that 17 of the 69 patients, or 25 percent, were not expected to live more than six months. Autopsies also failed to confirm any physical problems in five people. Twenty-nine percent had cancer; 38 percent had Lou Gehrig's disease or multiple sclerosis. Dr. L.J. Dragovic, the Oakland County medical examiner, had opened the records of his autopsies on the victims for researchers.

"It's very clear... they wanted to die but the reason they wanted to die was something beyond terminal illness," said researcher Donna Cohen. "It probably had do with some desperation, depression and a sense of helplessness, and an inability to control their lives. That part is real. We need to look carefully at how we support people who are living through these things."