Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
SUICIDE DOCTOR AIDS 9TH DEATH
Jack Kevorkian, the retired Michigan pathologist dubbed "Dr. Death," helped a 53-year-old man who suffered from bone cancer to commit suicide Wednesday.Jack Elmer Miller of Huron Township, Mich., was the ninth person and the first man to commit suicide with Kevorkian's help.
Miller's death was announced in a terse statement released by Kevorkian's lawyer, Geoffrey N. Fieger, in Detroit. It said that Miller died about 9:30 a.m., and that his last words were "I love you all."
According to the statement, Miller's fiance, Cynthia Lee Coffee, Kevorkian and two Kevorkian assistants, Margo Janice and Neil Nickel, were present when Miller died. Coffee reported the death to Huron Township police.
Fieger said Miller died after breathing carbon monoxide through a mask. He triggered his own death by removing a metal clip from plastic tubing that connected a canister of carbon monoxide to the mask.`He said Miller was pronounced dead 18 minutes later.
Fieger also said Miller "had decided approximately two months ago that the pain from the metastasis bone cancer was far too great" and that he then turned to Kevorkian for help in ending his life.
The last two suicides in which Kevorkian assisted took place Dec. 15, a few hours before Michigan Gov. John Engler signed legislation outlawing physician-assisted suicide in the state.
But the new law, a two-year measure that also establishes a commission to study the social and ethical ramifications of physician-assisted suicide, does not take effect until March 30, a fact that Engler lamented when he signed the bill.
"I am eager to sign a better bill, one that is permanent and effective immediately," Engler said.
Beginning March 30, violators of the new law could face as many as four years in prison and a $2,000 fine. But Kevorkian has vowed to ignore the law, and Fieger said Wednesday that the retired pathologist, whose license to practice medicine has been suspended in Michigan, is counseling several other people, some of whom are close to a decision about taking their lives.