Jack Kevorkian, the American doctor jailed after assisting with more 130 suicides, has been paroled from a Michigan jail. In an interview with the New York Times, the frail 79-year-old was unrepentant, but promised not to violate the conditions of his parole by advising people on how to die. However, he has lost none of spark that has made him a celebrity, calling the government tyrannical, the public “sheep”, and his critics “religious fanatics or nuts”.

He is considering speaking engagements advocating assisted suicide, although the conditions of his parole will prevent him from going into too much detail. He told the Times that he had never been bothered by his nickname, Doctor Death. “They’re right in a way,” he said, since his focus as a former pathologist, was death and dying.

“Everyone is going to die. Aren’t you interested in what’s going to happen?”

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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