America’s icon of assisted suicide, Jack Kevorkian, will be able to celebrate his 79th birthday in relative freedom next week. After eight years in a Michigan jail for helping a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease to die, he will be paroled on June 1. His attorney says that Kevorkian is a very sick man who suffers from Hepatitis C and hardening of the arteries in the temples. His client has vowed not to break the law again. Instead he will focus on educating the public about his position on assisted suicide.

Kevorkian has become something of a hero for the voluntary euthanasia movement, especially after being jailed. “You’d be surprised at how many people have written to me and offered to have him stay at their homes when he gets out of prison,” says his lawyer. “The man is an icon, but that’s neither here nor there.”

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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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