Not Dead Yet, Press Release

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Disability Activists Applaud Court's Rejection of Kevorkian Appeal

Disability activists applauded the latest turn in Kevorkian's legal saga. The Michigan Supreme Court has rejected Kevorkian's latest appeal of his 1999 second-degree murder conviction in connection with the death of Thomas Youk.

According to press reports, Kevorkian's latest appeal claimed that "euthanasia is legal and that his conviction was unconstitutional." Disability activists, who were present every day of Kevorkian's trial for the execution of Thomas Youk, are relieved, but not surprised, to see the appeal rejected.

"It's gratifying to see Kevorkian's deadly logic rejected by the courts," says Diane Coleman, founder and president of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group that leads the disability community's opposition to legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia. "The basis of this appeal was laughable on constitutional grounds. But then, he has repeatedly made it clear that he has no respect for the law, and even less respect for people with disabilities. In fact, he holds both the law and disabled people in contempt."

In 2000, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine documented that most of the people who died at Kevorkian's hands were women with disabilities, and not terminally ill, contrary to popular misconceptions created by Kevorkian and his allies. Instead, people who went to Kevorkian were disabled people in social and emotional crisis.

Stephen Drake, research analyst for Not Dead Yet, is pleased to know Kevorkian will stay in jail for the foreseeable future. "Whether Kevorkian resumed killing our people or not, the very fact that he 'got off' with just three years in prison would mean that the court felt that killing a disabled person is not a serious crime. Besides, even if he refrained from new killings, he would no doubt go out on the media and lecture circuit recruiting other killer docs."