cover image Appointment with Doctor Death

Appointment with Doctor Death

Michael Betzold. Momentum Books LLC, $21.95 (346pp) ISBN 978-1-879094-37-6

Kevorkian, the retired pathologist who has helped 18 patients with terminal illnesses or chronic extreme pain to die since 1990, is now facing trial under Michigan's new law banning assisted suicide. In interviews with Detroit Free Press reporter Betzold ( End of the Line ), the doctor, son of immigrant Armenian parents who witnessed his own mother's agonizing death from cancer, states his case. Kevorkian denies belief in an afterlife, and considers his cause an ethical one. The author recounts the actual last moments of the dying patients who have turned to Kevorkian. His critics are vividly sketched: the medical establishment, anti-abortion activists and what Kevorkian calls a ``barbaric religious clique.'' And we also hear from his staunch defenders, notably his attorney Geoffrey Fieger, the ACLU and the Hemlock Society. ``It's unstoppable,'' says Kevorkian, ``It may not happen in my lifetime, but my opponents are going to lose.'' The book may be intended as a pre-trial defense brief, but readers who are willing to hear Kevorkian out are given much to ponder. (Oct.)