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Archive of Dr. Jack Kevorkian at UM library

Posted at 5:04 PM, Nov 30, 2015
and last updated 2015-11-30 17:04:18-05

An archive on Dr. Jack Kevorkian is available for the public at Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. There are nine boxes full of manuscripts, photos, newspaper clippings and research. 

Dr. Kevorkian is said to have assisted at least 130 patients with physician-assisted suicide. In 1999, he was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in a case of voluntary euthanasia. Medical information on these cases are in the archive but personal details are there as well. 

“The collection humanizes him. People think of Dr. Death as this scary figure who was a political mobilizer. He was also a child of immigrants, star student in his class. You see him as a real human being and I think that’s the value of the archival collection that we have,” says Terry McDonald, Bentley Historical Library director.