University of Michigan Medical School has been urged to reconsider its recognition of a former student and convicted killer for his ‘contribution to patient care’.
Known as ‘Dr Death’, Jack Kevorkian is thought to have illegally helped 130 people to kill themselves. In 1999 he was convicted of murdering Thomas Youk by lethal injection.
But Michigan University professors Kristin Collier and Scott Lyons have objected, and called on the medical school to “celebrate its best, not its worst”.
‘Grave moral error’
In a Michigan Daily opinion piece, the academics expressed surprise that the euthanasia activist had been named among “175 alumni and faculty who have made the University of Michigan world-renowned as the ‘leaders and best’”.
They said it was “distressing that Medicine at Michigan chose to highlight someone whose entire body of work militates against the core foundations of medicine as a healing profession”.
Celebrating Kevorkian’s ‘legacy’, they warned, “would suggest that the medical school is in favor of suicide. That would be a grave moral error.”
And they urged the medical school to retract the name from its list of “leaders and best” and recommit itself to the principle of ‘do no harm’
Vulnerable victims
In November, Wrexham man Miles Cross — who sold lethal drugs online — pleaded guilty at Mold Crown Court to encouraging or assisting suicide.
Cross admitted selling a chemical to four people who were seeking help online to kill themselves. One customer, 26-year-old Shubhreet Singh, committed suicide by using the substance supplied by Cross.
North Wales Police’s Detective Superintendent Chris Bell said the perpetrator “took advantage and exploited his victims in their most desperate moments, profiting off their vulnerability and mental illnesses”.
Assisting or encouraging suicide is illegal in England and Wales under the 1961 Suicide Act and punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
Hypocrisy
Last year, Kim Leadbeater was accused of hypocrisy for attending an event focussing on suicide prevention. At the time she called it a “powerful reminder of the need for continued work on suicide prevention”.
Writing for The Critic, Adam James Pollock commented: “It is morally nonsensical to advocate for greater support for suicide prevention while simultaneously spearheading the campaign to legislate for suicide to be provided by the National Health Service on behalf of the state.”
So moving to visit the ‘Speak Their Name’ exhibition in Parliament. The beautiful quilts are created by families & friends in loving memory of someone they’ve lost to suicide. A powerful reminder of the need for continued work on suicide prevention: https://t.co/XvzgTadokI pic.twitter.com/XNfFgaIj5e
— Kim Leadbeater MBE MP (@kimleadbeater) October 15, 2025
And later in the same year, she also made a show of appearing to support the hospice sector, though she previously voted in Parliament against an amendment which would allow hospices to opt out of providing assisted suicides on their premises.
For those who think you can’t possibly care about giving terminally ill people choice in their dying days AND suicide prevention, this will really blow your minds – you can also care about our brilliant hospices too. We can and must do all these things #HospiceCareWeek pic.twitter.com/NmcpizEe1T
— Kim Leadbeater MBE MP (@kimleadbeater) October 16, 2025