Kevorkian Vows Hunger Strike if He Is Imprisoned
Self-styled right-to-die crusader Jack Kevorkian, who has helped 15 people kill themselves, said he will go on a hunger strike if he is imprisoned under a new Michigan law that makes it illegal to assist in a suicide.
“I will stop eating,” Kevorkian said in an interview taped Wednesday for the ABC-TV program “20/20.” He added that it is “the only action I can take to rectify the situation.”
The program is scheduled to be broadcast tonight.
Kevorkian, a pathologist, has not assisted in any suicides since a Michigan law that bans such assistance took effect on Feb. 26. But he said the next assisted suicide will be soon.
“There are two or three candidates right now,” he told interviewer Barbara Walters. “I will not obey that law because that law is immoral and no physician should obey an immoral law.”
Kevordian said that obeying the law “would perpetuate human suffering by law, legislation. That is inconceivable, it is outrageous.”
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