
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308050234
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOUTHFIELD, MICH.                                LENGTH: Medium

KEVORKIAN ADMITS ASSISTING SUICIDE

Dr. Jack Kevorkian said he helped a 30-year-old man with Lou Gehrig's disease kill himself Wednesday, his first such admission since a state law banning assisted suicide took effect in February.

"I assisted Thomas Hyde in a merciful suicide. There's no doubt about that. I state it emphatically," Kevorkian told reporters outside his lawyer's Southfield office. "I will always do so when a patient needs it, because I'm a physician."

Hyde, 30, of Novi, inhaled carbon monoxide on Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River, said Kevorkian attorney Geoffrey Fieger. Hyde suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian said the disease advanced unusually quickly.

It was the second time Kevorkian has been present at a suicide since the new state ban took effect. In the May 16 death of a Southfield man, Kevorkian's lawyers said only that he was present, a change from descriptions of him assisting suicides in most previous cases. No charges have been brought.

The new Michigan law, passed last year in response to Kevorkian, imposes a penalty of up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine for violators.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Stevens overturned the law on technical grounds on May 20. But the state Court of Appeals blocked Stevens' ruling in June while it reviews the case.

Kevorkian thrashed the medical profession for not taking a stand on the issue.

"They're politicians first, businessmen second and they ought to be ashamed of themselves to have human beings like Thomas Hyde suffer immensely, unable to move any muscle, cannot speak, cannot swallow, have pain in addition to all that, and they turn their heads because `We've got to discuss this a little more,"' Kevorkian said.

Dr. Thomas Payne, immediate past president of the Michigan State Medical Society, said Kevorkian "definitely violated the law."

Police Inspector Gerald Stewart declined to discuss the investigation of Hyde's death other than to say Kevorkian was questioned and released.

"If we come up with the elements necessary to proceed with charges, we will," Stewart said.

by CNB