The man who made assisted suicide a household name has himself passed on. Dr. Jack Kevorkian died Friday at age 83.

Kevorkian died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak Michigan of a pulminary thrombosis, a blood clot that broke free from his leg and lodged in his heart. According to medical personell he was sedated and did not feel anything.  Since 1990 Kevorkian assisted in an estimated 130 suicides of people suffering from often incurable illnesses or other permanent debiliating health issues took their own lives.  Authorities had failed numerous times to pin the 'assisted suicides' on the man known as Dr. Death, but finally convicted him in 1998 for helping a 52 year old Lou Gherig's disease sufferer take his own life.   Kevorkian spent 8 years in prison beginning in 1999.  Kevorkian argued throughout his 'medical' career (he really was a licensed medical doctor who worked for decades before taking up the issue of assisted suicide) that people who cannot live or function at the level they wish, or with some sort of dignity have the right to terminate their own life.  The debate over assisted suicide that Kevorkian created still rages to this day. In fact,  three states, including Washington and Oregon, now have assisted suicide, or Death With Dignity Laws, on the books.

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