Death Aided by Kevorkian to Air on CBS

CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” said it would air a videotape Sunday of a terminally ill patient dying after being administered a lethal dose of drugs by retired pathologist Jack Kevorkian.

“We’re just letting Dr. Kevorkian tell his story,” network spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. “He wants to use the videotape to tell it and that’s an integral part of it. I really don’t think there’s a news organization in this country that would pass up this story.”

Kevorkian, who has acknowledged helping about 120 people commit suicide, tells Mike Wallace it is the first time he is admitting to killing a patient himself. He said he wants authorities to prosecute him for euthanasia.

The provocative segment will be aired on the last Sunday of broadcasting’s November “sweeps” period, where TV ratings are watched closely to set local advertising rates. Tedesco said viewers will be warned in advance that the story could be disturbing.

The doctor brought the videotape to “60 Minutes” less than two weeks ago, Tedesco said. The patient and his family are interviewed on the videotape and it is being shown with their permission, he said.

A medical examiner in Michigan reported this week that a man found dead in his Waterford Township home by a hospice nurse on Sept. 17 had been injected with a barbiturate mixture similar to chemicals used by Kevorkian in the past.

The dead man was identified as Thomas Youk, 52, a patient who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Tedesco would not comment when asked whether Youk was the patient seen in Kevorkian’s video.

An Oakland County medical examiner said that since Youk was in the advanced stages of the degenerative and fatal nerve illness, he would have been physically incapable of injecting himself.