Kevorkian plans post-prison role

For nearly a decade, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, waged a defiant campaign to help other people kill themselves.

But as he prepares to leave prison Friday after serving more than eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the death of a Michigan man, there’s still only one state that allows physician-assisted suicide: Oregon.

Some expect that Kevorkian’s release could spur another round of efforts, if only to block moves to enact new laws.

Opponents defeated an assisted-suicide measure in Vermont this year and are fighting similar efforts in California. Bills have failed in recent years in Hawaii, Wisconsin and Washington state, and ballot measures were defeated in California, Washington, Michigan and Maine.

Kevorkian has promised he’ll never again advise or counsel anyone about assisted suicide once he’s out of prison. But his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said Kevorkian wasn’t going to stop pushing for laws to allow it.

Michigan wants to go after money that Kevorkian makes after his release to help cover the cost of his incarceration. Morganroth has said his client has been offered $100,000 to speak. Many of those speeches are expected to be on assisted suicide.

“It’s got to be legalized,” Kevorkian said in a phone interview from prison aired Monday by a Detroit TV station. “I’ll work to have it legalized. But I won’t break any laws doing it.”