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Despite the fact that Michigan, his home state, has revoked his medical license, Jack Kevorkian has proved to be adept at evading punishment. The county prosecutor who failed to get a conviction in four tries was defeated earlier this month by a primary opponent who accused him of wasting taxpayers' money in a futile attempt to put Dr. Kevorkian behind bars.

responding to public opinion surveys is one thing and casting a vote is another. When voters in Washington state went to the polls in 1991, they defeated a measure that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide despite polls showing strong support. Campaign workers for the initiative pinned some of the blame for the loss on Jack Kevorkian, who had assisted in the deaths of two women shortly before election day -- and thus, in one observer's words, "put a face on the fears" of legalizing the procedure.

After all, if physician-assisted suicide were legal, it could be regulated and physicians could be prosecuted for aiding in the deaths of people like Judith Curren, the Massachusetts nurse whose turbulent marriage and drug history have raised questions not just about Dr. Kevorkian's judgment but also about the role her psychiatrist husband played in her decision to die.