Reviews for Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia

The average rating for Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-03 00:00:00 Johnny Daugherty It wasn't until the film "You Don't Know Jack" was released that the public got to see that Dr. Jack Kevorkian was more than just "Dr. Death." in "You Don't Know Jack" we saw that he was "human", with his strengths and weaknesses and passions. This book delves into greater detail in that regard. We learn about his childhood. Even as a boy he was far ahead of his time, wondering why his intelligent sisters shouldn't get the same educational opportunities as he. I doubt very many boys in the '30s/'40s thought about gender equality, but Kevorkian did. We feel a little sad as we learn about his somewhat lonely teenage years and also cheer him on because he was determined not to "fit in"; he continued to be a fiercely independent spirit. We learn about his research on retinas at the moment of death, his advocacy of optional organ donation by condemned criminals, and experiments involving transfusing cadaver blood to needy humans. Unfortunately, society had and still has visceral reactions of disgust to these things, deeming them disgusting and morbid. He ran into one brick wall after another in his research. At last we read about his assisted suicide advocacy. We learn about this remarkably brilliant, multi-talented man who has social problems and and a childlike naivety (I wonder if he has Asperger's Syndrome?). Indeed, we see how, just like everyone else, he is complicated. He is not the one-dimensional cutout that the media (Fox News especially) has made him out to be. We see that he is a compassionate and intense person and one of the greatest minds of the past hundred years. And, of course, we want to put our fist through the wall at the travesty of justice that was his incarceration and how he nearly died in prison. This is a wonderful book about Kevorkian's life and it also includes photographs. The only drawback is this book wasn't updated to reflect that he was released from prison; it was written when it looked like he was going to die, presumably by suicide before his Hepatitis C killed him.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-26 00:00:00 Christina Summa This book gave insight to the life and achievements of Dr. Kevorkian. He's known for his battles with the system regarding physician assisted suicide. There is little known about the fact he rallied for issues that would have provided the living with a better quality of life. Not to mention the fact that his efforts regarding death care is the reason why our medical centers have amped up their pallative and end of life care practices. It's unfortunate that such a brilliant mind had to come up against such opposition.