Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:34:16.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paging Dr. Death: The Political Theater of Assisted Suicide in Michigan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Susan P. Fino ,
John M. Strate  and
Marvin Zalman
Susan P. Fino
Affiliation:
Wayne State University, USA
John M. Strate
Affiliation:
Wayne State University, USA
Marvin Zalman
Affiliation:
Wayne State University, USA
Get access

Abstract

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist from Royal Oak, Michigan, created an instant sensation on June 4, 1990, when he assisted Janet Adkins in committing suicide by lethal injection. Kevorkian's activities, and the ineffectual efforts of public officials to stop him, generated social conflict, issue expansion, and political theater. In this case, political theater involved acts of civil disobedience that resulted in arrests, three high-profile criminal trials, and three subsequent acquittals. As the participants in the conflict tried to generate public support for their respective positions, the debate degenerated into name-calling, hyperbole, and rights talk. This kind of public discourse limits the potential for self-governance and leads to reliance on the courts or other methods of conflict resolution.

Type
Physician-Assisted Suicide
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 87 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (1991). Report: D (A-19), Decisions Near the End of Life 3.Google Scholar
Annas, G.J. (1993). “Physician-Assisted Suicide—Michigan's Temporary Solution.” New England Journal of Medicine 328:1573–76.Google Scholar
Bachrach, P. (1967). The Theory of Democratic Elitism. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Benson, Lord and Rothschild, Lord (1982). “Royal Commission: A Memorial.” Public Administration 60:339–48.Google Scholar
Blank, R.H. (1988). Life, Death, and Public Policy. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Blank, R. and Merrick, J.C. (1995). Human Reproduction, Emerging Technologies, and Conflicting Rights. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Brody, H. (1993). “Legislative Ban on Assisted Suicide: Impact on Michigan's Medical Practice.” Michigan Medicine 92:32–34.Google Scholar
Bulmer, M. (1983). “Increasing the Effectiveness of Royal Commissions: A Comment.” Public Administration 61:436–43.Google Scholar
Clark, N. and Liebig, P.S. (1996). “The Politics of Physician-Assisted Death: California's Proposition 161 and Attitudes of the Elderly.” Politics and the Life Sciences 15:273–80.Google Scholar
Crenson, M.A. (1971). The Unpolitics of Air Pollution: A Study of Non-Decisionmaking in the Cities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. (1964). The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. (1988). Constructing the Political Spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Glendon, M.A. (1991). Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Glick, H.R. (1992). The Right to Die. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Graber, D.A. (1993). Mass Media and American Politics. Fourth edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Kevorkian, J. (1991). Prescription Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Kingdon, J.W. (1973). Congressmen's Voting Decisions. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Marzen, T.J., O'Dowd, M.K., Crone, D., and Balch, T.J. (1985). “Suicide: A Constitutional Right?” DuQuense Law Review, 24 (1):1–242.Google Scholar
Michigan Commission on Death and Dying (1994). Final Report. Lansing, MI: Michigan Commission on Death and Dying.Google Scholar
Michigan State Medical Society (1993). “Special Report: MSMS Adopts Policy Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide.” Michigan Medicine 92:27–29.Google Scholar
National Press Club (1996). National Press Club Luncheon, Monday, July 29, 1996, transcription. Washington, DC; Federal News Service/NC.Google Scholar
New York State Task Force on Life and the Law (1994). When Death Is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context. New York: New York State Task Force on Life and the Law.Google Scholar
Patterson, S.C. (1996). “Legislative Politics in the States.” In Gray, V. and Jacob, H. (eds.), Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Persels, J. (1993). “Forcing the Issue of Physician-Assisted Suicide: Impact of the Kevorkian Case on the Euthanasia Debate.” Journal of Legal Medicine 14:93–124.Google Scholar
Ringquist, D.J., Klemanski, J., and Press, C. (1995). “Influencing Michigan Politics.” In Browne, W.P. and VerBurg, K. (eds.), Michigan Politics and Government. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Rochefort, D.A. and Cobb, R.W. (1994). The Politics of Problem Definition. Shaping the Policy Agenda. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E.E. (1975). The Semi-Sovereign People. Hinsdale, IL: The Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Sedler, R.A. (1993). “The Constitution and Hastening Inevitable Death. Hastings Center Report 23 (5):20–25.Google Scholar
Smith, G.P. II (1989). “All's Well That Ends Well: Towards a Policy of Assisted Rational Suicide or Merely Enlightened Self-Determination.” California U.C. Davis Law Review 22 (2):274–419.Google Scholar
Zalman, M., Strate, J., Hunter, D., and Sellars, J. (1997). “Michigan's Assisted Suicide Three Ring Circus: The Intersection of Law and Politics.” Ohio Northern University Law Review 23 (3): in press.Google Scholar