Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, seeks a House seat or else

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the famous Dr. Death who's on parole from prison for helping a Michigan man with Lou Gehrig's disease die in the 1990s, has decided to run for a seat in the U.S. House  of Representatives as an independent.

According to the Oakland Press, Kevorkian, who was released from prison in June after serving a prison term for second-degree murder, plans a formal announcement next week that he will seek election from Michigan's 9th District (Oakland County), challenging Republican incumbent Jack Knollenberg.

Kevorkian was convicted in 1998 of assisting in the suicide death of Thomas Youk and has been in prison since. Getting out of prison and running for election to Congress is a reversal of the normal order of events for many federal legislators.

"We need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington," Kevorkian told the paper.

Kevorkian has said he assisted in the deaths of more than 100 people during the 1990s.

The ex-pathologist is required to gather 3,000 signatures on a petition in order to get on the ballot as an independent. No word on what Kevorkian will do to you if you don't sign.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: CARLOS OSORIO / EPA

Comments

[SimpleRep]

He may be Dr. Death, but the difference between Kevorkian and the Clintons? Kevorkian admits to his crime and conscience.

[Mo]

I hope Dr. Jack gets elected and provides machines and the necessary assistance to the rest of Congress.

[J]

I'm glad to hear it because I support this guy and never thought he should've been thrown in prison.

But god, what a terrible article. "LOL he'll kill you if you don't vote for him! HAHA he's going from prison to congress and that's wacky! get it? politicians are corrupt! GET IT? GUYS!?"

[marianne erikson]

Where do I sign!? This man is a hero!

[jurassicpork]

He helped kill over 200 people? He'll never get elected. Republicans like George Bush have killed over a million. Kevorkian's a piker, in comparison.

[+]

his is honest and needs to wake up our politics to face reality and sollve the problems of disillusions of our new age....i vote for him...

[Ivan Sanchez]

Anyone in their right minds will not even pay attention to Kevorkian, ‘the murderer!’ Some people just don’t recognize what shame is and further more we have enough ‘sickos’ running around in our country without insulting the American people with Kevorkian running for anything!
Kevorkian ranks along with Bush, Chavez, Castro, etc. We just don’t want anymore idiots running our country!

[Someone who cares about the next generation]

Honestly, people, is this really a controversial issue? Think about what he's going to try to do if he gets elected. He'll probably put physician assisted suicide clinics everywhere and it probably wouldn't stop there. Things would get out of hand, people who want to die who don't have terminal illness will find some way of working around the system (this happens all the time with anything). There are so many things that will most likely go wrong with this that the government would put a stop to it anyway, and then what will he try? Those who support Kevorkian are probably thinking, "People have a right to die, we probably don't need those people anyway, etc." We need all kinds of people in this world to make a whole, for one. You'll get those people that their wife or husband left them saying, "Oh life's so terrible I don't want to live anymore." Out of everyone who has said that, they eventually get over it. Face it, life has its ups and downs, that's life. We can't have someone like Kevorkian actually having a say so in these kinds of issues. People die whenever it is time for them to go, unfortunately some people go through a lot of pain, but keep in mind that whoever knows those people are effected creating a situation that could change things, the dominoes effect. (For example, someone's grandmother has cancer. The grandkid feels deeply for his grandmother so he discovers a cure per say. Unfortunately he will never get to the first notion of wanting to find a cure because grandmother decided to go to Kevorkian's clinic and kill herself.) Is this really the kind of man we want in our future's history as an example for our children? Where will it end? For God's sake, just think about it, use the brain you were given for good use instead of being...well you get my point.

[Rachel Justice]

I think he should be able to run for the position. Why should we punish a man for granting a dying man and his family there wishes.Like a previous article read Bush has killed many people he should be the one questioned about his intention.

[Dan Trumble]

GO JACK GO! I like Jack! Probably the most honest man in politics. I'd vote for him for president!

[Tomtom]

I LOVE YOU JACK! You have been a real hero to me for many years and I'm so very glad to see you out there campaigning for human rights again. You are in my prayers.

Oh, by the way - To the person who posted on this thread on June 25, 2008, I hope you are one of the many people who get cancer and in your words "go through a lot of pain". Perhaps then, when you are screaming in agony for death to come you will wish Dr. Kevorkian was there for you...

Think about it.

[el Pedro]

Cheney and the drunk killed 1.2 million Iraqi civilians not to mention 4,000 or our troops. For no reason. Why aren't those war criminals in jail?

They probably killed another 4,000 on 9-11, too. Now we're in a irreversible fascist police state that will be bankrupt (and won't have any money to pay the head bashers.)

Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps - Naomi Wolf

"There are ten things would-be dictators always do when they seek to close down a democracy. Each of these is underway in the U.S.":

• Invoke a powerful terrifying threat--it could even be real (example: 9/11)
• Establish secret torture prisons and military tribunals outside of judicial oversight (examples: Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib)
• Set up a paramilitary force that is not answerable through the traditional justice system (example: Blackwater)
• Engage in surveillance of ordinary citizens (example: the NSA wiretap scandal)
• Infiltrate citizen groups (the ACLU has collected thousands of examples)
• Arbitrarily detain and release citizens (example: Naomi Wolf: "Every time I travel, I get searched. 850,000 Americans--critics of what's going on--are on the 'terror watch list.' It's a way of intimidation").
• Target key visible public officials, academics, and students (example: the mass firing of U.S. Attorneys who had not shown sufficient loyalty to the Bush administration; interestingly enough, Wolf says, during the Nazi era, Goebbels also fired government attorneys general)
• Restrict the press (examples: "Two CBS journalists are held in Iraq today. If that doesn't chill coverage..." And Wolf claims that even the publisher of the Wall Street Journal was threatened with legal action--part of a long and dishonorable history of dictators intervening in journalism that included Stalin's execution of Izvestia's editor, as well as the 18th-century Alien and Sedition Acts in the U.S.)
• Recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason (example: stirring up mass hysteria against the Dixie Chicks)
• Subvert the rule of law (example: Bush's "signing statements")

[john]

This guy is a hero. Those of you who aren't disabled and suffering intensely don't even have a voice.