Impact Nancy Kerrigan demonstrated the grace
and athleticism of figure skating, but her experi-
ences also showed the dark side of the fiercely com-
petitive world of these athletes. Her story contrasts
the lofty ideals of the Olympics with the harsh reali-
ties of competitive sports.
Further Reading
Baughman, Cynthia.Women on Ice: Feminist Essays on
the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle. New
York: Routledge, 1995.
Kerrigan, Nancy, and Mary Spencer.Artistr y on Ice:
Figure Skating Skills and Style. Champaign, Ill.: Hu-
man Kinetics, 2002.
Dolores A. D’Angelo
See also Yamaguchi, Kristi; Olympic Games of
1992; Olympic Games of 1994.
Kevorkian, Jack
Identification American pathologist and right-to-
die activist
Born May 26, 1928; Pontiac, Michigan
Kevorkian’s controversial right-to-die activism revealed
how strongly Americans on both sides of the assisted suicide
issue felt about their positions and spurred milestone judi-
cial, legislative, and societal responses.
In 1990, Jack Kevorkian became a key figure in a
movement that sought to allow physicians to legally
assist terminally ill patients in committing suicide.
On June 4, 1990, Kevorkian initiated a dramatic
strategy for confronting the legal and medical estab-
lishments. On that date, he used a machine that he
had constructed to help Janet Adkins, a fifty-four-
year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease, kill her-
self. When the patient pushed a button, the ma-
chine, which Kevorkian called the Thanatron
(Greek for “death machine”), administered a coma-The Nineties in America Kevorkian, Jack 481
Jack Kevorkian displays his Thanatron, or “death machine,” in 1991.(AP/Wide World Photos)