Rebecca Badger, Someone to Remember

Eleven years ago in July, Rebecca Badger died from a lethal injection administered through Jack Kevorkian's home-made "mercitron" contraption. Badger was 39 years old, a single mother of two, with a history of psychiatric illness, attempted suicides, and drug and alcohol problems. After complaining of severe muscle spasms, Badger was mistakenly diagnosed with MS whereupon she sought out Kevorkian to help end her life.

Her daughter Misty is left to wonder, "At first I was so convinced she had MS. But now I think people who have a mental illness can manipulate people around them really good. Maybe that's what happened here." Badger's primary doctor acknowledges there was never any objective evidence for her complaints of pain and admits she may have been faking it.

We'll probably never know the source of Badger's reported pain. What we do know is that this 39 year old woman had psychiatric disabilities, was Kevorkian's 33rd victim, and left two grieving daughters behind. Rebecca Badger is missed by those who cared about her and those she left behind when Kevorkian helped to end her short life.

Source: The Suicide Machine (1997). The Detroit Free Press Inc.