On October 11, 2007 Dr. Jack Kevorkian will speak at the University of Florida. His resume includes at least 130 assisted suicides, several notable writings, and an eight year stint in prison (out of the 10-25 years sentenced for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk). Kevorkian accepted my school's offer by ACCENT, which is the largest student-run speaker's bureau in the nation, as well as a Student Government agency.
Therefore, his $50,000 honorarium is subsidized by taxpayer dollars. Kevorkian's UF stop will probably be his first paid public speaking engagement since his June 1 release from prison, according to Kevorkian's lawyer Mayer Morganroth. "They were actually the first ones to call," Morganroth said of ACCENT. "They sent the request almost immediately after he was out."
Assuming he is granted special permission from his parole officer to leave Michigan, Dr. Kevorkian will be greeted here in Gainesville, Florida with open arms from many students and professors. It should be one of only a few school appearances by him, due to his fragile health (thankfully no other doctors have yet proposed the euthanasia of him!). Kevorkian is terminally ill with Hepatitis C and diabetes, stoking rumors of his own imminent death.
None of which has abated his delusions of grandeur: "I'm the reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson. I'm doing what he wants done: educate and inform the whole mass of the people. That's the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." Kevorkian said during a Michigan news conference days after his release from jail. He claimed he "was going to oppose government tyranny. He said people are too willing to give up their rights and that he was going to follow in Jefferson's footsteps to educate the people about their rights," reported the North Country Gazette of New York.
Funny he should mention rights and liberty: among the many categories of people Kevorkian feels entitled to experiment on, the most troubling could be the "Suicide by Proxy" category. In his 1991 book Prescription Medicide, he lays out his prey: "Suicide by Proxy --the killing by the decision and action of another, of fetuses, infants, minor children, and every human being incapable of giving direct and informed consent." Yes, you read that right: Kevorkian believes children can be killed, experimented on, or used for organ procurement at a parent's mercy.