Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993 TAG: 9308180040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT LENGTH: Medium
A warrant was issued charging Kevorkian with assisting in the death of Thomas Hyde, 30, of Novi. Hyde, suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, died Aug. 4 after inhaling carbon monoxide from a canister in Kevorkian's van on Belle Isle in the Detroit River.
Kevorkian then challenged prosecutors to make him the first person charged under the 6-month-old law, saying he intended to ignore it because he considered it immoral.
Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair said he couldn't let Kevorkian disregard the law, even though he disagrees with it and it may be overturned.
Kevorkian was arraigned Tuesday before a magistrate, who ordered him freed on $100,000 bond and scheduled a preliminary examination for Aug. 27.
At a news conference later, Kevorkian said he would continue to help "suffering patients."
"This is not a matter of law, governors, legislators, politicians, ethicists, religionists, theologians, philosophers. It's a medical matter," Kevorkian said. "We need no laws, no regulations, no initiatives in any state."
He urged the medical establishment to push for an end to "all ill-advised laws" and regulate the practice like other medical procedures, such as heart transplants.
"Let's work together," he said.
Kevorkian, 65, faces up to four years in prison if convicted, but O'Hair said he would not ask for jail time.
At a news conference announcing the charges, O'Hair said assisted suicide should be legalized. But he said way Hyde killed himself was improper.
"When you think of Thomas Hyde on Belle Isle with essentially a stranger, in Kevorkian's rusty, broken-down van, inhaling carbon monoxide as a means of ending his life, it seems to me that this is exactly the kind of thing we want to avoid," O'Hair said.
by CNB