Appointment With Doctor Death - hardcover

Book by Betzold, Michael, Some of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's "patients" traversed the continent seeking relief. Local prosecutors charged that Kevorkian was committing murder, not "medicide." When a court disagreed, the Michigan legislature passed a flawed law to thwart the retired pathologist. Suddenly, medically assisted suicide was out of the closet and onto every newscast. Written by a seasoned journalist who covered Kevorkian for the Detroit Free Press, this book exposes both the macabre and the merciful. Standing on either side are grandstanding attorneys, sanctimonious critics, devoted supporters and, keeping score, an often callous media horde. The patients/victims and their survivors, meanwhile, struggle to deal with untenable lives. Among those who kept appointments with Dr. Death is a young cancer victim who came to Detroit and died just as Michael Betzold sat down to write this book. Incredibly--without her knowledge that Betzold was covering the story, and without his knowledge of her impending death--medicide patient #15 was Betzold's first cousin and childhood friend.