Mercy's Friend or Foe?

As Dr. Kevorkian takes on the state of Michigan over physician-assisted suicide, he may be undermining his own crusade

Dr. Jack Kevorkian has spent much of his medical life searching for ways to make better use of human bodies, especially dead ones. Thirty years ago, as a young pathologist in Pontiac, Michigan, he became the first doctor to transfuse blood directly from a corpse into a live patient. He marveled at the possible uses -- on battlefields, for instance, or during a natural disaster -- and lamented the fact that public distaste for the procedure would probably preclude its clinical acceptance.

Over time he turned his attention to patients who were soon to be dead, looking to salvage whatever he...

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