‘Dr. Death’ Found at Scene of Ailing Woman’s Suicide

CHICAGO —  Dr. Jack Kevorkian--Michigan’s so-called Dr. Death--who is already facing murder charges for helping two seriously ill women kill themselves, was at the side of another such woman when she committed suicide Friday, but his attorney insisted that Kevorkian did not assist in her death.

Authorities in Clawson, Mich., a Detroit suburb, said they found the controversial doctor at the home of 52-year-old Susan Williams shortly after she had taken her life by inhaling a lethal mixture of carbon monoxide and nitrogen.

Kevorkian’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said the doctor had provided the gas. “He brought the canisters. Anybody can buy that, he didn’t go out and get it, somebody gave it to him. He provided nothing sinister,” Fieger said.

The death of Williams, who was legally blind, suffered from cancer and had been confined to a wheelchair for over a decade because of degenerative multiple sclerosis, was the fourth such suicide at which Kevorkian was present in less than two years. He is scheduled to face trial in two of those deaths this fall.

He is under a permanent court injunction not to participate in suicides.

Kevorkian was not at his home late Friday and declined to reveal his whereabouts. Fieger said he would turn Kevorkian over to authorities if and when new charges were filed against his client, an action that was anticipated.

But Fieger warned that if Kevorkian is jailed, “he will go on a hunger strike and will end his own life.”

Kevorkian did not aid Williams’ suicide “in any way,” Fieger said. “She was the person who put the mask on her face, she was the person who turned on the can of carbon monoxide. She was the person who ended her own life without the aid of anyone whatsoever.”

Kevorkian first received notoriety in 1990 after he used a suicide machine to help a Portland, Ore., woman end her life. Suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, she traveled to Michigan to kill herself with Kevorkian’s invention. He was charged with murder in that death, but the charge was eventually dropped. Nevertheless, a judge issued a permanent injunction barring him from participating in further suicides.

Kevorkian ignored the order, however, helping two Michigan women to kill themselves last year. Marjorie Wantz, 58, suffered from a debilitating pelvic disease and Sherry Miller, 43, had multiple sclerosis. Neither, however, were considered terminally ill by doctors.

Kevorkian is expected to stand trial next fall for the deaths of Wantz and Miller. He faces life in prison if convicted. Michigan officials also suspended his medical license, although he is appealing that ruling.

In the latest death, police in Clawson said they received an emergency phone call about a suicide at the Williams’ home. Though it was unclear who made the call, police said they found Kevorkian at the scene when they arrived. Also present when police arrived were Kevorkian’s sister, Fieger, Williams’ four sisters and her 29-year-old son.

Fieger said Williams’ 81-year-old husband, who himself is in frail health, was not at the scene but was aware of her decision to end her life.

At an afternoon press conference, Fieger read from what he described as a suicide note. “I feel I have the right to end my own life,” Fieger quoted the dead woman as writing. “ . . . Dr. Kevorkian counseled me not to do this until I was sure this is what I want.”

Williams also wrote that she prayed Kevorkian would be exonerated of any wrongdoing, Fieger said.

Jon Marcus, another lawyer representing Kevorkian, said he did not believe Williams’ death will have any impact on the doctor’s pending murder trial. “I think we can win the trial in any county, in any court,” Marcus said. “ . . . The jury instruction requires that one person kill another (in order to prove murder.) It doesn’t require that someone set up a machine or provide a gun.”

Marcus said he was not surprised by Kevorkian’s decision to ignore the court order. “I thought it would happen again,” he said.

A spokesman for the National Hemlock Society, a euthanasia advocacy group, said the 50,000-member organization was troubled by Kevorkian’s actions even though it generally supports the right of physicians to aid in the suicides of terminally ill patients.

“Anyone has the right to commit suicide,” said Kris Larson, spokesperson for the California-based group, “but physicians shouldn’t assist with this type of disease.”

The group endorses the legal option of physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill when there is certification by two doctors that the individual has six months or less to live.

In California, an aid-in-dying initiative has qualified for the November ballot. Michigan, Maine, Iowa and New Hampshire have similar legislation pending. On Friday, Michigan Gov. John Engler called for the Legislature to outlaw doctor-assisted suicide before the state develops a reputation as “the suicide state.”