It must have seemed strange in 1987, when Dr. Kevorkian placed newspaper ads for death counseling and began handing out his business cards.
His ads questioned if one was terminally ill and wished to die with dignity? He called himself a physician consultant and launched a new career.
After receiving criticism and negative press for placing these ads, it became increasingly hard for him to find gainful employment. He continued to write for medical journals and tried other inventive forms of employment.
Kevorkian began researching laws governing assisted suicide. He asked for an opinion on the legality of the practice of obitiatry in Michigan. A prosecutor advised him that no statute existed that addressed the issue of assisted suicide.
Dr. Kevorkian set about establishing a list of standards for his potential clients to meet, in order to be considered for assisted suicide. He included the following in his criteria: A person would have to be terminally ill, be interviewed by a psychiatrist, and if suffering from chronic pain, be referred to a pain management specialist.
All medical records had to be reviewed, attempts had to be made to dissuade the patient, and death should not take place any earlier than 24 hours after the patient's final request.
In 1989, a 38-year-old quadriplegic, nursing home patient, living in Detroit, requested to be discontinued from life support. David Rivlin had suffered a surfing accident and had been paralyzed since the age of 19. Kevorkian wanted to help patients like David to die. He realized that he needed a method where the patient could actually "push the button."
The answer to this "push button" approach was the Thanatron ('death machine') invented by Kevorkian in 1989. It allowed the patient to self-administer a lethal dose of medication.
The Thanatron employed the use of three solutions. A saline solution was started by the doctor to establish a method of introducing fluid into a vein. The patient could then use a trigger device, to cut off the saline solution and start the flow of a medication to put the patient into a coma (thiopental). After 60 seconds elapsed, a timer device would release a lethal dose of potassium chloride, which would cause a fatal heart attack.
Kevorkian planned to have Rivlin pull a string clinched in his teeth to release the lethal medications. Rivlin rejected Kevorkian's help. He sought the assistance of another physician who removed him from life support.
