FLINT -- Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the doctor known across the nation as Dr. Death, died Friday at age 83.
Before Dr. Jack Kevorkian made national headlines for helping people end their lives, he had a reputation in Lapeer County where he worked for a time.
“He worked out of the box,” said retired Genesee County Judge Robert Ransom of Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Judge Ransom had friends who worked with Dr. Kevorkian, and they described his unconventional approach to medicine.
The judge was not surprised when Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second degree murder for helping his patients commit suicide.
The charges came after a “60 minutes” episode aired in 1998 showed Kevorkian helping a Michigan man kill himself.
Kevorkian served eight years in prison for second-degree murder. During that time, Judge Ransom found himself hearing a case regarding the man he had heard about years before.
Barbara Walters and ABC’s 20/20 wanted to interview the assisted suicide advocate in prison, but the Michigan Department of Corrections had refused them the opportunity. ABC took the matter to court, arguing it was a matter of freedom of speech. Judge Ransom agreed with ABC.
“The right to die was a significant public issue, and I felt that that under appropriate safeguards ABC should have the right to conduct the interview,” said Ransom.
Judge Ransom says the right over whether we have a right to die never got the attention it needed.
“Now that Dr. Kevorkian has died, while it is sad, perhaps it will be a vehicle to again air this issue.”
Kevorkian claimed to have assisted in at least 130 suicides.
He died at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where he had been hospitalized for kidney problems and pneumonia.
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