In an interview here on Sunday, two days after his release from prison, Mr. Kevorkian, 79, let loose a rush of fierce words about a nation that did not pass any new laws allowing assisted suicide while he was in prison. Again and again, he called the government \u201cthe tyrant.\u201d\u009d He called the public \u201csheep.\u201d\u009d He called some of his harshest critics \u201creligious fanatics or nuts.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Kevorkian says he assisted with more than 130 suicides in the 1990s, when he drew national attention to questions about what rights people have when it comes to dying. Asked whether he would turn away a gravely ill person seeking his guidance now, he said gruffly, \u201cI can\u2019t help them.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Kevorkian, convicted in one of those 130 cases of second-degree murder, has agreed in his parole provisions not to help anyone else commit suicide. \u201cSorry,\u201d\u009d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t blame me. Blame your government for passing the laws.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Kevorkian seemed gloomy, too, about whether laws allowing assisted suicide would ever expand much beyond Oregon, the only state that has legalized the practice under certain circumstances. Of the United States becoming one of the countries to allow it, he said: \u201cIt\u2019ll be the last one, if it does ever. It\u2019s a tyrannical country.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n