retired detroit pathologist who, in the view of many, has led the fight to make assisted suicide a right of all citizens by actually helping terminally ill people to die by their own hands.

His detractors describe 'Dr. Jack' as everything from a dangerous fanatic to a serial killer. He has been the butt of jokes on the Tonight Show and the subject of numerous prosecutions by Southeastern Michigan legal authorities. Still he hasn't wavered in his beliefs or his actions.

Kevorkian was born in 1928 in Pontiac, Michigan. He received a medical degree with a specialty in pathology from the University of Michigan in 1952. After publishing several controversial papers in the 50s and 60s, he became chief pathologist at Saratoga General Hospital in Detroit, where he remained until the late 70s.

When Kevorkian first lept into the public eye In 1988, when he built his 'suicide machine,' and on June 4, 1990, assisted in his first suicide. Janet Adkins was a 54-year-old woman from Portland, Oregon who suffered from Alzheimer's.

Janet Adkins was the first of dozens of Kevorkian 'patients' whose names are actually known. There are certainly others. Despite the efforts of prosecuting attorneys from several Michigan counties, as well as the Michigan legislature and its governor, Dr. Kevorkian continues to offer assistance to this day. Juries have refused to find him guilty, and most polls show the public supports his efforts.