Jack Kevorkian and "Patholysis"

In a recent CNN interview with Sanjay Gupta, Jack Kevorkian stated that he prefers the term "patholysis" when describing the "medical procedure" he performed on at least 130 people, by his own count.  "Path means disease or suffering," Kevorkian said to Gupta.  "And lysis, means destruction," Gupta said.  "Exactly," Kevorkian answered.  "Patholysis," he repeated. "The destruction of suffering."  





I had not heard that term before.  But it is already listed in Roget's Thesaurus.  And Kevorkian was apparently using the term at least as far back as the mid-1990s.  (N.Y. Times, Dec. 5, 1995; New York Mag. Jan. 13, 1997).