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In March 1999, Jack Kevorkian sat in an Oakland County courtroom after being convicted of second-degree murder for his involvement in the death of Thomas Youk.

Despite Kevorkian’s repeated protestations that “dying is not a crime,” the jury disagreed and sent him to prison. Now a martyr for the cause of physician-assisted suicide, “Dr. Death” would become synonymous with the practice for the rest of his life.

25 years later, advocates for “dignity in death” are once again hoping to see the issue discussed more widely in the State of Michigan.

A senate bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Michigan was referred to the committee on health policy last year, but since then, no additional movement on the issue has been made.

The 2024 legislative session is drawing to a close, and unfortunately for proponents of physician-assisted suicide, it’s doing so with no movement on SB 0681’23, a bill legalizing the practice.

The current bill isn’t the first time Michigan has attempted to reckon with the issue of physician-assisted suicide, however. First was in 1998 with Proposal B, which would have placed legal protections for “euthanasia” in the state constitution.

That proposal overwhelmingly failed. Right to Life of Michigan, an extension of the National Right to Life organization, campaigned heavily against the initiative and 71% of Michiganders agreed with them.

The next major movement on this issue came in the form of HB 4461’17, which was introduced in March 2017, referred to the House Committee on Health Policy in that same month and died there by April.

Given the speed at which its House of Representatives counterpart died, why has SB 681 stalled for so long? According to the Senate records of health policy committee meetings for the 2023-2024 session, the bill has not been discussed at all since its referral.

There is the view that the issue is too controversial and in an election year, Senators would prefer to kill it in committee than debate it publicly.

One of the most vocal organizations in opposition to the issue of physician-assisted suicide in the state is Right to Life of Michigan. To date, the group has released no statements regarding either HB 4461 or SB 681.

Pressure from the right-to-life lobby appear to be absent, therefore Senators could be responding to negative public opinion on the issue and a perceived cultural taboo surrounding conversations about death.

Recent Gallup polling pokes holes in this argument as well, showing that 71% of Americans are in favor of doctors being “allowed by law to end the patient’s life by some painless means if the patient and his or her family request it.” The percentage in favor of what the poll calls “doctor-assisted suicide” is lower, reported as 61%.

If in 1998, 71% of Michiganders were opposed to physician-assisted suicide and in 2024, 71% of Americans are in support of it, what accounts for the public change?

One possible factor is the normalization of the practice in the intervening years. Oregon passed a law allowing it in 1998, and nine additional states followed (not including Washington D.C., where physician-assisted suicide is legal as of 2016).

Another is a lack of targeted opposition. Both the National Right to Life political action committee and its state branches are nominally opposed to the practice but spend most of their money and effort opposing abortion access.

Most likely is the fact that the issue was never as controversial as certain lobbies would like the public to believe.

Discussions about euthanasia in America date back to the early 20^th century, but the most vocal opposition has existed mainly in religious communities and their affiliated political organizations.

Kevorkian himself proves the variability of public opinion on this issue. He was tried four times between 1994 and 1997 for providing life-ending drugs to his terminal patients, but it wasn’t until he filmed himself euthanizing Youk that he was convicted.

The acquittals that preceded the conviction upset Kevorkian, according to contemporary reporting. Jack Lessenberry reported in 1998 Kevorkian wanted a conviction to “expose how totally corrupt this society is.”

This passion led to the Youk euthanasia tape. Kevorkian was so determined to shine a light on what he perceived to be the public’s unjust condemnation of physician-assisted suicide that he provided evidence that aided in his own prosecution.

Jessica Cooper, the judge that convicted Kevorkian summed up contemporary public opinion at his sentencing, saying: “This trial was not about the political or moral correctness of euthanasia. It was about you, sir.”

The history of physician-assisted suicide has always been one of ideologues raising the issue to the national stage via their own fervor either for or against the practice. Despite their best efforts, public opinion remains as it always has been: complicated.