title: Michigan versus Kevorkian.
abstract: Our personal reflections on the Michigan versus Kevorkian trial highlight the following issues: 1) the switch from physician-assisted suicide to euthanasia, 2) the television showing of the death, 3) the dropping of the prosecution of the charge of physician-assisted suicide, 4) Kevorkian serving as his own defense attorney, trying to argue that ALS was a secondary cause of Thomas Youk's death, 5) Kevorkian's attempt to employ a logical syllogism to demonstrate that euthanasia need not be murder, 6) Kevorkian's initial reference to the civil rights tradition but sudden change to the medical analogy of Nazi medicine: a final solution, 7) the insistence of Kevorkian on "all or nothing" sentencing, 8) the irony of Kevorkian being finally convicted by a prosecutor who was elected on a platform of not prosecuting Kevorkian, 9) Kevorkian hiring a lawyer after the verdict is in, and 10) Kevorkian's threat to starve himself to death if sent to prison.
authors.affiliation: Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, 2929 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616-3390, USA.
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McKeon
mesh_terms: D028601:Euthanasia, Active / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008402:Mass Media; D008824:Michigan; D010820:Physicians; D012297:Right to Die; D017236:Suicide, Assisted; D009626:Terminology as Topic