An update on the Kevorkian-Reding 93 physician-assisted XXXX in Michigan: is Kevorkian a savior, serial-killer or suicidal martyr?

@entity1 @entity204 @entity1223
This report presents an update of the Kevorkian-Reding physician-assisted (or physician-aided) @entity204 to include the ninety-three publicly acknowledged cases as of November 25, 1998. These @entity204 are divided into ten distinct time phases. The following trends emerge. Over two-thirds of the decedents are @entity1 , the ratio of females to males varying widely with phase. The proportion of @entity1 seems to be the highest when Kevorkian is free to act as he wants and lowest when he seems to be acting under legal or political restraints. Based on autopsy results, only 29.0 percent of the cases are terminal, this percentage being higher among @entity1 (37.9%) than among @entity1 (25.4%). However, 66.7% of the decedents were disabled, no significant difference emerging between @entity1 and @entity1 . Further, five out of the six decedents showing no apparent anatomical sign of disease at autopsy were @entity1 . Over 80 percent of the physician-assisted @entity204 are cremated, approximately twice as high a proportion as that emerging for suicides in Michigan and four times as high as cremations occurring with regard to overall @entity204 . Finally, @entity204 by @entity1223 decreases dramatically with time phase while the use of the contraption dubbed the "suicide machine" increases, suggesting an increasing routinization over time. Finally, during the ninth and tenth phases, Kevorkian's aims and his own suicidality emerge more clearly involving 1) harvesting organs and 2) threat of starving himself in prison if he is convicted. Phase 10 can be seen as an escalation from assisted @entity204 to overt euthanasia, repeating the same need for a demonstration (Thomas Youk) that was first exhibited in Phase I (Janet Adkins).
