A bare majority of Utahns thinks Dr. Jack Kevorkian should not be prosecuted for helping terminally ill people commit suicide, the latest Deseret News/KSL poll shows.
Kevorkian, the retired Michigan doctor who has assisted in 20 suicides over the past several years, had been sitting in a Detroit jail until Friday. For several weeks he was on a hunger strike, charged with violating Michigan's new law banning assisted suicides. But he was freed Friday after promising a judge that he wouldn't assist in any more suicides until an appeals court rules on the constitutionality of the Michigan law.After the promise, Kevorkian's bail was reduced from $50,000 to $100.
In a poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, 51 percent of Utahns said Kevorkian should not be prosecuted for helping terminally ill people commit suicide. Forty-two percent said he should be prosecuted, and 8 percent didn't know.
Nationally, a CBS poll conducted Dec. 13-14 found that 58 percent of Americans support doctor-assisted suicides. A mid-November poll conducted by Louis Harris found that 73 percent of Americans think doctors should comply with the wishes of the terminally ill in helping them die.
The Jones poll was conducted Nov. 30-Dec. 2; 604 adults were interviewed statewide.
Jones found, not surprisingly, a connection between one's moral and political views and their ideas on Kevorkian. For example, 58 percent of those who said they were active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Kevorkian should be prosecuted. Most members of other faiths said he should not.
Likewise, 57 percent of Republicans said he should be prosecuted for helping the terminally ill kill themselves; most Democrats and independents said he should not.
Utah has no law prohibiting assisting in suicides, said Assistant Attorney General Creighton Horton. Nearly 40 states do have such laws. Because suicide is not a crime in Utah, current accomplice-to-a-crime laws also don't apply, Horton said. If, however, someone was active in aiding a suicide, a prosecutor could try to charge the helper under some of the murder statutes, Horton said. Utah officials haven't had to worry about that so far. "We don't have a Dr. Kevorkian running around Utah," he added.
A spokesman for the Utah Medical Association said it is strictly against the association's code of ethics for a medical doctor to assist in a suicide. A doctor who did such a thing would likely lose his license to practice medicine in Utah.
As for Kevorkian himself, he has said public support is irrelevant.
"As long as there's one suffering patient, if only one person supported me, I would still do this," he said in September. "I couldn't live with myself otherwise."
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(Deseret News poll)
Do you think Dr. Kevorkian should be kprosecuted for helping people who are terminally ill commit suicide?
Should 42%
Should Not 51%
Don't Know 8%
Poll conducted Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, 1993. Margin of error +/- 4 percent on interviews of 604 adults. Conducted by Dan Jones & Associates.
Copyright 1993 Deseret News