Jack Kevorkian, (born May 26, 1928, Pontiac, Mich., U.S.—died June 3, 2011, Royal Oak, Mich.), U.S. pathologist, advocate and practitioner of physician-assisted suicide. He expressed early interest in experimentation on death-row inmates who had been rendered unconscious rather than executed; his ideas negatively affected his medical career. In the 1980s he devised his “suicide machine,” with which a person could commit suicide by merely pushing a button, and in the 1990s he assisted in the deaths of over 100 terminally ill persons. His actions provoked furious controversy and led to legislation and referenda; he was tried, convicted, and jailed twice in 1993, and his medical license was revoked. In 1998 he was convicted of murder for administering a lethal injection himself and was sentenced to 10–25 years in jail. He was released on parole in 2007.
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