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Tampa, Jul 18, 2007 / 10:25 am (CNA).- Dr. Jack Kevorkian is scheduled to speak at the University of Florida Oct. 11 for a $50,000-speaker fee. "We figure that this will be a great way to engage our student body and entertain," said Steven Blank of ACCENT, the University of Florida student-government funded speaker's bureau. "We do understand that this will spark controversy. And that is something we have done in the past," Blank told LifeSiteNews.com.Kevorkian, who is known to have assisted about 130 people to commit suicide, was released from prison earlier this year on "good behavior" after serving...

Marcelle Jones has thought a lot about how her life might end. She has been treated for a serious medical problem for several years, and while it has not gotten worse, eventually "it's going to get me," said Jones, 82. Long before she moved to Lakeland in 1990, Jones had joined the Hemlock Society - now known as Compassion and Choices - an organization that provides information about how terminally ill people can end their lives, either through passive means or, if they choose, by suicide. Lacking family and wanting to spare her friends the burden of caring for her,...

I lived in Michigan when the television news channels played the videos of Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting his terminally ill patients nonstop, day in and day out. It was clear, as the parties involved spilled out their hearts and souls in the most dynamic of intense emotions, that the good doctor was responding sincerely, thoughtfully, professionally and with deep compassion to those seeking to end their agony. You will find no man who more than I is dedicated to the self-evident truth that human life is sacred. I value, respect and completely cherish the precious gift of life that God...

Grim truth about euthanasia Dr. Death is much sicker and 'terminal' than vast majority of the people he killed By LICIA CORBELLA, EDITOREuthanasia, according to many, should be an issue of "choice". Indeed, after a recent column I wrote about the June 1 release from jail of convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian (aka Dr. Death) I received many letters including one by a woman named Carol Anne from near London, Ont. who chastised me for opposing the legalization of euthanasia. "It is truly a sick society when people treat their beloved pets more compassionately than the human race," wrote Carol Anne....

It is estimated that Jack Kevorkian has played a role in 130 assisted suicides, yet, not once, has he shown remorse for his actions. He showed no remorse Sunday night during his interview with Mike Wallace of CBS’s 60 Minutes. Wallace, as bioethicist Wesley Smith notes, is a supporter of assisted suicide and actually hugged Kevorkian when the CBS crew met “Dr. Death” upon his release from prison (although this moment wasn’t shown by 60 Minutes). During the interview, Wallace threw softballs at Kevorkian until about two-thirds of the way through when Kevorkian asked Wallace to “strafe” him or get...

RELEASE of “Dr. Death” after eight years in prison has refocused attention on America’s mixed feelings about whether terminal patients should be allowed to end their suffering. Physician Jack Kevorkian was jailed for helping desperate patients commit suicide — yet most Americans support the right of such patients to choose euthanasia. After polling a cross-section of U.S. residents, the Pew Research Center reported: “By more than eight-to-one (84 percent to 10 percent) the public approves of laws that let terminally ill patients make decisions about whether to be kept alive through medical treatment. ... In instances where a terminally ill...

Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian was released from prison today after serving eight years of a 10 to 25 year prison sentence he received for killing a patient. Kevorkian was sent to prison in 1999 after showing a videotape on CBS News of him euthanizing Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease. He smiled to a group of reporters as he walked out of the correctional facility. “It's wonderful,” he said of his release. “It's one of the high points of life.” However, the former pathologist didn't say much as his lawyer, Meyer Morganroth, whisked him...

Jack Kevorkian is set to be released from prison today. Don't expect Dr. Death to keep a low profile. He is already scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes, where he will be interviewed by euthanasia proponent Mike Wallace. After that, the rest of the media is likely to extravagantly tout Kevorkian as the compassionate, if eccentric, retired doctor who helped desperate, terminally ill people put themselves out of their misery. In actuality, most of Kevorkian’s “patients” were not terminally ill, but disabled and depressed. Several weren't even sick, according to their autopsies. Moreover, Kevorkian never attempted to treat any of...

UPDATE: Jack Kevorkian left prison after eight years. He was greeted by CBS reporter Mike Wallace -- who gave him a hug. COLDWATER, Mich. (AP) - Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist dubbed "Dr. Death" after claiming he had participated in at least 130 assisted suicides, left prison after eight years Friday still believing people have the right to die. A smiling Kevorkian said the release was "one of the high points of life" as he paused near a white van that was waiting for him. He was accompanied by "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace and wore a blue sweater, striped...

...From a purely humanist standpoint, one might conclude that each person owns his or her life. We create living wills so that a family member has the power to “pull the plug” if we become permanently incapacitated. How is it then, that a doctor can be authorized to disable a life support device when I’m a vegetable, but cannot enable a device to stop my heart under other circumstances? In both cases, it is a matter of a physician flipping a switch or prescribing a drug to end a life...

Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- There are just two days left until one of the most notorious killers in the medical profession gets out of prison. Jack Kevorkian may have been responsible for the deaths of 130 people but he will have very limited freedoms and abilities during his parole after he is released from prison on Friday. Kevorkian found himself behind bars after he taunted the judicial system in Michigan to put him away by showing a video of him euthanizing a patient on national television. Pro-life advocates have already said they're concerned that Kevorkian will go back to his...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian is set to be released later this week, a new poll conducted by the Associated Press finds Americans appear divided on the issue of assisted suicide. The poll also found a majority of people didn't think Kevorkian should have been jailed, though it asked an inaccurate question. Conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, a polling firm that does surveys for AP, the poll found that people were more encouraging of death for others than for themselves.Some 68 percent of those polled indicated that there are circumstances in which doctors should let...

Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian gets out of prison on Friday and the event has sparked a slew of media stories focusing on his release. But pro-life advocates in Michigan who battled with the former pathologist for years before he went behind bars are worried that the media is reviving Kevorkian's reputation. Kevorkian was sent to prison in 1999 after showing a videotape on CBS News of him euthanizing Thomas Youk, who was in the latter stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. Right to Life of Michigan president Barbara Listing points to a man responsible for killing...

'DR. DEATH' TO BE RELEASED AP May 27, 2007 -- LANSING, Mich. - Jack Kevorkian is due to be released from prison Friday, after having served more than eight years of a 10-to-25-year sentence. The retired pathologist, who waged a defiant campaign to help profoundly ailing people commit suicide, was convicted in the assisted death of a Michigan man.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- For nearly a decade, Dr. Jack Kevorkian waged a defiant campaign to help other people kill themselves. The retired pathologist left bodies at hospital emergency rooms and motels and videotaped a death that was broadcast on CBS' "60 Minutes." His actions prompted battles over assisted suicide in many states. But as he prepares to leave prison June 1 after serving more than eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the death of a Michigan man, Kevorkian will find that there's still only one state that has a law allowing physician-assisted suicide - Oregon. Experts...

It's time for some True Crime. An acting Baldwin is arrested and it's not the first time. Hey folks, isn't it time someone put that Duke rape prosecution to rest? I've some ideas on why no one's doing anything to stop this travesty of justice. Dr. Death, AKA Dr. Kevorkian, soon to be out on parole, soon to kill again. Dear Dr. Kevorkian isn't as noble as many think he is. Either a pet ferret or a puppy chewed off an infant's toes and no one knows what to charge the neglectful parents with or even which animal did the...

LANSING, Michigan (AP) -- After more than eight years in prison, a frail Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June with a promise that he won't assist in any more suicides, a prison spokesman said Wednesday. Leo Lalonde, the corrections spokesman, would not provide further details. Kevorkian, once the nation's most vocal advocate of assisted suicide for the terminally ill, is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, an Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998. Youk's death was videotaped and shown on...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) Michigan officials say assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June.

A very sick 78-year-old doctor is dying in a Michigan prison, an anachronism left over from the 20th century. Should we let him die in prison, or do we have the decency to say, "Enough is enough. Release him and let him die at home"? The doctor is Jack Kevorkian, who was sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in Michigan's Lakeland Correctional Facility for Men. He traded his freedom for openly, shamelessly touting what he called our "right to die with dignity." He'd spent the 10 prior years brashly, illegally helping 130 terminally ill people end excruciatingly painful...

Jack Kevorkian's attorney is asking Michigan's governor and parole board for a third time to pardon the 77-year-old assisted-suicide advocate or commute his sentence. Kevorkian is eligible for parole in 2007, but attorney Mayer Morganroth says he might not live that long. Kevorkian suffers from a number of ailments, including high blood pressure, arthritis, cataracts, osteoporosis and Hepatitis C, he said. "The man is in dire shape," Morganroth said in a statement Saturday. "Prison has deteriorated him almost to the point of no return." Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said in the past that she won't consider pardoning Kevorkian. Two previous...