Synopsis
Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia by Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie is an authorized biography that offers an in-depth look at the life and controversial career of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist known as “Dr. Death” for his advocacy of physician-assisted suicide. Published in 2006 by the University of Wisconsin Press, the book draws on the authors’ close personal relationships with Kevorkian—Nicol as a friend and coworker since 1961, and Wylie as a longtime neighbor and confidant—to provide a detailed and sympathetic portrait of a man whose radical ideas challenged societal and medical norms. The narrative combines Kevorkian’s personal history, from his childhood and medical career to his imprisonment, with an exploration of his relentless campaign to legalize euthanasia, emphasizing his belief in personal choice and quality of life over mere existence. The authors aim to humanize Kevorkian, presenting him as a brilliant, compassionate, yet polarizing figure whose work sparked global debates about the right to die.
The book opens with the pivotal case of Thomas Youk, a patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) whose 1998 assisted death, administered by Kevorkian and broadcast on 60 Minutes, led to Kevorkian’s arrest and conviction for second-degree murder. This dramatic event sets the stage for the biography, framing Kevorkian’s life as one defined by defiance and sacrifice. The authors trace his early years, born in 1928 to Armenian immigrant parents in Pontiac, Michigan, highlighting his intellectual precocity—he was fluent in eight languages and reportedly had a genius IQ—and his unconventional path through medical school at the University of Michigan. Kevorkian earned the nickname “Dr. Death” not from euthanasia but from his early research on cadaver eyes to determine time of death, a sign of his lifelong fascination with mortality. His later experiments, such as cadaver blood transfusions (in which he contracted hepatitis as a test subject), and proposals for organ donation reforms and medical experiments on death-row inmates, further distanced him from the medical mainstream, establishing him as a provocative thinker unafraid to challenge taboos.
The heart of the book details Kevorkian’s evolution into the leading advocate for physician-assisted suicide in the 1990s, a period when he assisted in the deaths of over 130 patients using his self-designed “Thanatron” (death machine) and “Mercitron” (mercy machine). The authors describe how Kevorkian developed a meticulous protocol to ensure patient autonomy, requiring clear expressions of intent, consultations with family and mental health professionals, and a month-long reflection period. His patients, often terminally ill but not always (60% were not, according to some reports), sought relief from unbearable suffering, and Kevorkian saw his role as fulfilling a medical duty to alleviate pain, famously stating, “Dying is not a crime.” The book recounts his numerous legal battles, including multiple acquittals in the early 1990s due to the absence of U.S. laws explicitly prohibiting assisted suicide. However, his decision to directly administer a lethal injection to Youk, who could not activate the device himself due to ALS, crossed a legal line, leading to his 1999 conviction and a 10-to-25-year sentence in Michigan’s Thumb Correctional Facility.
Nicol and Wylie also explore Kevorkian’s broader impact on the right-to-die movement, crediting him with revolutionizing global perspectives on euthanasia. They note that his advocacy helped pave the way for legalized assisted suicide in countries like the Netherlands and, to a limited extent, in U.S. states like Oregon, though Kevorkian criticized Oregon’s law for restricting aid to terminally ill patients, arguing that suffering, not terminality, justified the choice to die. The book portrays his incarceration as a travesty, highlighting the support he received from figures like Thomas Youk’s brother, who called his imprisonment unjust. Kevorkian’s eccentricities—his interest in music (he was nominated for a Grammy), his provocative public stunts, and his self-representation at trial—are woven into the narrative, painting him as a complex, sometimes naive figure whose compassion was overshadowed by his confrontational style. The authors address criticisms, including from some euthanasia proponents who felt his methods were too extreme, but they defend his legacy as a pioneer who forced medicine to confront its responsibilities toward dying patients.
In its final chapters, the book reflects on Kevorkian’s life in prison, where, in his late seventies and in failing health, he remained a vocal advocate for reform. Released on parole in 2007 after serving eight years (though he died in 2011, after the book’s publication), Kevorkian continued to inspire both admiration and controversy. Nicol and Wylie argue that his work led to improvements in palliative care and end-of-life practices, even as he faced visceral societal backlash. The biography is not without flaws; some readers criticize its lack of journalistic rigor, noting speculative descriptions of Kevorkian’s emotions, but it is praised for its comprehensive view of a misunderstood figure. Through personal anecdotes, photographs, and Kevorkian’s own words, such as his 1994 Vanity Fair quote, “Personal choice is really what it is all about,” the book presents a compelling case for Kevorkian as a compassionate visionary whose radical actions reshaped the discourse on death and dignity.