Jack Kevorkian

"My intent was to carry out my duty as a doctor, to end their suffering. Unfortunately, that entailed, in their cases, ending of the life."

Dr. Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian (born Murad Kevorkian), also known by his nickname "Dr. Death", was a physician, pathologist, euthanasia activist and convicted murderer.

Background
Jack Kevorkian was born in Pontiac, Michigan to Levon and Santenig Kevorkian, Armenian immigrants. They had three children together: Margaret, Murad and Flora. He started calling himself "Jack" after a teacher nicknamed him that at school. Strictly religious, the Kevorkians raised their childrens to be Christians, though Jack later started questioning the beliefs; one thing he used as argument was the Armenian Genocide from which his mother had fled. At the age of 12, he stopped attending Sunday school entirely. In school, he enjoyed more artistic activities such as painting and playing the piano, but was also very sceptical of whatever he heard; more often than not, teachers couldn't keep up with his debating skills. He never pursued any romantic relationships because he believed they distracted him from his studies. Kevorkian graduated high school with high honors in 1945, aged 17, and had also taught himself German and Japanese.

At first, Kevorkian studied at the University of Michigan College of Engineering hoping to become a civil engineer, but quickly switched his studies to botany and biology. He finally settled on medical studies, graduating in 1952 and specializing in pathology. In 1953, when the Korean War began, he served 15 months in the U.S. Army as a medical officer and spent the rest of his service time in Colorado. While doing his residency in anatomical and clinical pathology, Kevorkian became fascinated with the act of dying and would photograph the eyes of terminal patients trying to pinpoint the exact moment of death. In 1958, he presented some of his views on euthanasia in a paper to a science journal, proposing that prisoners on death row could be used for medical experiments. Because of his views and odd experiments, his peers nicknamed him "Dr. Death". Because they also led to him becoming a minor celebrity, the university ejected him. He continued his internship at Pontiac General Hospital, where he experimented with transfusing blood from corpses to living patients. The experiments were succesful, but when Kevorkian proposed the idea to the Pentagon, hoping that the technique could be used on battlefields to help injured soldiers. For some reason, he was denied a federal grant to continue his research. After becoming qualified as an expert in 1960, Kevorkian worked at different hospitals before settling down in Detroit and opening his own clinic.

Conviction, Release and Later Life
In 1987, Kevorkian started advertising himself in newspapers as a physician consultant for "death counseling". His first public assisted suicide was of a 54-year-old Alzheimer patient, Janet Adkins. She had been a member of an organization that advocates voluntary euthanasia for terminal patients. Using a machine he had designed called "the Thanatron", which was built for the purpose of suicide and would first administer a saline solution, then a pain killer and finally a fatal dose of potassium chloride, Kevorkian aided her suicide in a parked Volkswagen in a public park. He was consequentially charged with murder, but since the state of Michigan at the time had an indecisive stand on assisted suicide, he wasn't convicted. In 1991, the Thanatron was barred in Michigan by a legal injunction. Though Kevorkian also lost his medical license, he later claimed to have assisted in over 130 suicides over the following seven years. He designed another suicide machine, "the Mercitron", which basically consisted of a gas mask connected to a canister of carbon monoxide. After a bill prohibiting assisted suicide was passed, Kevorkian found himself on trial for murder four times. In three of those cases he was acquitted because the victims had been the ones who had taken the final action. The fourth ended in a mistrial. In 1998, Kevorkian, rather defiantly, allowed CBS 60 Minutes to air a tape of him euthanizing Thomas Youk, an ALS patient. Afterwards, he dared the legal system to have him prosecuted. Needless to say, he was once again arrested. This time, he was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison. On June 1, 2007, only eight years into his sentence, he was paroled on good behavior on the condition that he wouldn't assist in any more suicides, though it didn't stop from lecturing about assisted suicide. He spent the remainder of his life doing that and was also an oil painter and jazz musician, releasing some of his work to the public. In 2008, he announced that he was planning to run for Congress as an independent candidate, but he wasn't elected. On June 3, 2011, he passed away from thrombosis. His epitaph reads "He sacrificed himself for everyone's rights".

Known Victims
Note: While Kevorkian, according to Wikipedia, assisted in the suicides of over 130 people, the following is the one death for which he served time in prison
 * September 17, 1998: Thomas Youk, 52

Other
Other people whose suicides Kevorkian assisted according to the Patients Rights Council
 * June 4, 1990: Janet Adkins, 54
 * 1991:
 * October 23:
 * Marjorie Wantz, 58
 * Sherry Miller, 43
 * 1992:
 * May 15: Susan Williams, 52
 * September 26: Lois Hawes, 52
 * December 15:
 * Marcella Lawrence, 67
 * Marguerite Tate, 70
 * 1993:
 * January 20: Jack Miller, 53
 * February 4:
 * Stanley Ball, 82
 * Mary Biernat, 73
 * February 8: Elaine Goldbaum, 47
 * February 15: Hugh Gale, 70
 * February 18:
 * Jonathon Grenz, 44
 * Martha Ruwarts, 41
 * May 16: Ronald Mansur, 56
 * August 4: Thomas Hyde, 30
 * September 9: Donald O'Keefe, 73
 * October 22: Merian Frederick, 72
 * November 22: Ali Khalili, 61
 * November 26, 1994: Margaret Garrish, 72
 * 1995:
 * May 8: John Evans, 77
 * May 12: Nicholas Loving, 27
 * June 25: Erika Garcellano, 60
 * August 21: Esther Cohen, 46
 * November 8: Patricia Cashman, 58
 * 1996:
 * January 29: Linda Henslee, 48
 * May 6: Austin Bastable, 53
 * June 10: Ruth Neuman, 69
 * June 18: Lona Jones, 58
 * June 20: Betty Lou Hamilton, 67
 * July 4: Shirley Cline, 63
 * July 9: Rebecca Badger, 39
 * August 6: Elizabeth Mercz, 59
 * August 15: Judith Curren, 42
 * August 20: Dortha Louise Sibens, 76
 * August 22:
 * Patricia Smith, 40
 * Pat DiGangi, 66
 * August 30: Loretta Peabody, 54
 * September 2: Jack Leatherman, 73
 * September 7: Isabel Correa, 60
 * September 29: Richard Faw, 75
 * October 10: William Spolar, 70
 * October 17: Nancy DeSoto, 55
 * October 22: Barbara Collins, 65
 * 1997:
 * February 3:
 * Elaine Day, 79
 * Lisa Lansing, 42
 * March 7: Helen Livengood, 59
 * March 18: Albert "Buddy" Miley, 41
 * March 25: Janette Knowles, 75
 * April 8: Heidi Aseltyne, 27
 * May 7: Delouise Bacher, 63
 * June 26: Janis Murphy, 40
 * July 1:
 * Dorinda Scheipsmeier, 51
 * Lynne Dawn Lennox, 54
 * August 13: Karen Shoffstall, 34
 * August 26: Janet Good, 73
 * August 29: Thomas Summerslee, 55
 * September 3: Carol Fox, 54
 * September 7: Deborah Sickels, 43
 * September 20: Natverlal Thakore, 78
 * September 29: Kari Miller, 54
 * October 3: John Zdanowiez, 50
 * October 8: Lois Caswell, 65
 * October 13: Annette Blackwell, 34
 * October 30: John O'Hara, 54
 * November 13: Naida Foldes, 72
 * November 22:
 * Naomi Sachs, 84
 * Bernice Gross, 78
 * December 3: Martha Wichorek, 82
 * December 13: Rosalind Haas, 59
 * December 16:
 * Margaret Weilhart, 89
 * Cheri Trimble, 46
 * December 27:
 * Franz-Johann Long, 53
 * Mary Langford, 73
 * 1998:
 * January 8: Nancy Rush, 81
 * January 18: Carrie Hunter, 35
 * February 3: Jeremy Allen, 52
 * February 23: Muriel Clement, 76
 * February 26: Roosevelt Dawson, 21
 * March 5:
 * William Cannaughton, 42
 * Patricia Greyham, 61
 * March 13: Waldo Herman, 66
 * March 26: Mary Judith Kanner, 67
 * April 9: Shala Semonie, 47
 * April 13: Dixie Colleen Wilson, 64
 * April 17:
 * Pricilla Hiles, 73
 * Jack Schenbern, 89
 * April 24: Lucille Alderman, 86
 * May 7: Matthew Johnson, 26
 * May 19: Emma Kassa, 68
 * June 7: Joseph Tushkowski, 45
 * Unspecified dates: 16 additional people whose names were never given by Kevorkian

On Criminal Minds
Kevorkian was mentioned in Children of the Dark when an UnSub working at an animal pound, Ervin Robles, is jokingly described by his employer as the "on-site Kevorkian" due to him usually being the one who euthanizes animals left in the pound.