They'll Be After Me For This: Jack Kevorkian and the Rebirth of the Right-to-Die Movement

• In Event: 378 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 09. Social Movements

Abstract

The right-to-die (RTD) movement in the U.S. proved to be one of the most enduring and contentious struggles of the 20th century. Dr. Jack Kevorkian became the public face of the movement in 1990, remaining in the media spotlight until he was sent to prison for murder in 1999. Neither the RTD movement nor its most important leader have been adequately studied. This paper describes and explains the origins of the movement’s most recent upsurge during the 1990s. After detailing Dr. Kevorkian’s assistance in Janet Adkins’s June 1990 suicide, I recount the immediate aftermath of that pivotal event and follow Kevorkian and the movement through the end of 1990. I argue that Adkins’s suicide, occurring as it did in a particular political and historical context, was the singular event that reignited the RTD movement and propelled Kevorkian to national fame.

Author

• Michael DeCesare, Merrimack College