The husband of a woman who killed herself on a doctor's "suicide machine" quoted her final statement as saying she didn't want to put her family "through the agony" of Alzheimer's disease.
Janet Adkins, 54, committed suicide Monday with the assistance of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, 62, a retired Royal Oak, Mich., pathologist who hooked her to a "suicide machine" he created that injected potassium chloride into her veins.Adkins' husband, Ronald, 57, said Tuesday that his wife was a woman who "loved life." He said she was an adventurer who had climbed Mount Hood, traveled to the Himalayas, flown in hot-air balloons and spoke French.
"She was an exciting person," he said. "She loved philosophy, she loved reading good literature, she was a good musician, she played the piano. Really, she loved life to the fullest."
Ronald Adkins, an investment consultant in Portland, said his wife made the decision to kill herself when she learned that she had Alzheimer's and since then the only question was how.
"When this happened she was really very much upset with it, particularly because her mind was her," he said about the diagnosis, which he and his family referred to as "the bomb."
"She was a member of the Hemlock Society and also believed that if you do have a terminal illness that it's your right to decide when to exit," he said.
Ronald Adkins, who was married to Janet for 34 years, said that he also was a member of the Hemlock Society, a group based in Eugene, Ore., that supports the concept that people should be able to legally kill themselves.
Adkins said he and his wife had discussed the possibility of "self-deliverance" in the past and said his wife had read several books on the subject. He said he respected his wife's decision to die.
Adkins said his wife tried an experimental Alzheimer's treatment at the University of Washington in Seattle, but she gave up after 21/2 months with no results.
He said his wife was coherent right up to the end of her life, but that little things like forgetting tennis scores were starting to add up.
"She didn't want to let this go for two or three years and then be at a point where most Alzheimer's patients are where they can't make any rational choices or decisions," he said.
He said the family spent a wonderful two days in Detroit before his wife committed suicide.
"Through all of this, she's been a very vivacious person and a very positive person. I was the weak one, the family was the weak one," he said.
Spokeswoman Diana Smith said the Hemlock Society will introduce legislation to the Oregon State Legislature next year that would make it legal for terminally ill people to choose to commit suicide.