Regarding Kevorkian

Not Dead Yet is demanding that the Associated Press retract and correct a faulty poll that asked the public misleading questions about the parole of convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian. From the press release:

According to the AP, the survey asked the following question:

"Do you think that Michigan doctor Jack Kevorkian should have been jailed for assisting terminally ill people end their own life, or not?"

"This question misinforms the respondent about the nature of the crime Kevorkian was convicted of and also mischaracterizes the health status of the majority of people who died at his hands. As anyone who watched the 60-Minutes telecast knows, Kevorkian directly injected lethal chemicals into Thomas Youk. This is not 'assistance'," says Stephen Drake, Not Dead Yet's research analyst. "Further, the word 'people' is paired with 'terminally ill', indicating that the majority of his body count consisted of people who were close to death." Beginning with the Detroit Free Press series 'The Suicide Machine' in 1997, there is overwhelming documentation that the majority of people who went to Kevorkian had non-lethal chronic conditions and disabilities.

Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, personally contacted Trevor Thompson, the AP's Manager of News Surveys, to demand a retraction and correction.

"Mr. Thompson eventually agreed the question didn't jive with the facts of Kevorkian's career or conviction but rejected any corrective action after consulting with the D.C. Bureau Chief, Sandy Johnson. Johnson claimed that the story about the poll was accurate, disregarding responsibility for contaminating the poll with a misleading question."

Carol Gill, Ph.D., agrees with the concerns of Not Dead Yet. "All good survey designers know that misleading questions produce invalid results. When participants are asked to respond to inaccurate and confusing items, the result is spoiled data. Unfortunately, this poll contained flawed questions. It's impossible to base sound conclusions on these results." Professor Gill is a research psychologist and associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Drake adds that the refusal of Thompson and Johnson to address the misinformation in the poll is a violation of the AP's public "Statement on Values and Principles," which calls for swift and comprehensive corrective action when it publishes erroneous information.

"This is worse than the usual error," says Drake. "In this case, it created news in the form of a survey and then reported on that fabrication. Instead of simply reporting misinformation, AP has created the information in a way that superficially resembles scientific sampling. It has knowingly polluted the public discussion about an important public policy topic - and the organization is refusing to take responsibility for it."

Chicago columnist Mike Miner on the issue.

And a recent article from the Detroit Free Press stating that pro-assisted suicide activists are desperately trying to distance themselves from Kevorkian and his legacy:

As Jack Kevorkian, 79, prepares to re-enter the national spotlight this week after eight years in prison, assisted-suicide advocates are doing all they can to distance themselves from the man called Dr. Death.

His release from a Michigan prison Friday -- one week before a planned California vote on whether to join Oregon as the only states to allow assisted death for the terminally ill -- could not come at a more critical or inopportune time for the movement, which has worked for years to legalize the practice and shed the ghoulish persona many associate with Kevorkian and his suicide machine.

The article notes that in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, "Suicides under the law peaked in 2006, with 45 patients choosing to end their lives early."

That's inaccurate. There are no 2007 stats yet, so there's no "peaking." If 2006 has the highest stats, then possibly it's an upwards trend.

Here's a link to the Free Press coverage of Kevorkian over the years. Steven Drake says in comments at the Miner link above:

I've lost count of the number of Michigan journalists who admit there have been problems with accuracy in covering Kevorkian but don't seem particularly troubled by it.

Also, to my knowledge, the disavowal of Kevorkian by other assisted-suicide proponents is only vocal now, after he's been convicted, paroled, and will again have a public microphone. If someone can show me where these people have been speaking stridently against Kevorkian and his methods prior to now, when it's politically expedient to do so, I'd be interested in seeing that.