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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994                   TAG: 9404280215
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: DETROIT                                 LENGTH: Short

KEVORKIAN RAPS 'IMMORAL' LAW

Dr. Jack Kevorkian testified under oath Wednesday that when he helped a 30- year-old man suffering from a terminal illness to commit suicide by breathing carbon monoxide through a mask, he was seeking only to protect the man's ``autonomy'' and end the victim's suffering.

On the fourth day of his criminal trial in Detroit Recorder's Court here, the 65-year-old retired pathologist openly expressed contempt for ``organized medicine'' and the ``socially criminal'' American Medical Association and acknowledged he never intended to obey Michigan's ``Dark Ages'' law banning physician-assisted suicide.

``When your conscience says that law is immoral, don't follow it,'' said Kevorkian, who has helped 20 sick people commit suicide the last four years.

Dressed casually in a light jacket and blue sweater, the man known as ``Dr. Death'' appeared relaxed and confident, frequently cracking jokes. But in cross-examination, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Kenny attempted to portray Kevorkian as a lonely medical outlaw who has feuded with colleagues, advocated bizarre experiments and harbored a lifelong, morbid fascination with death.

Kenny also attacked the key element of Kevorkian's defense - that his intention was to end suffering of those who come to him and not to help them kill themselves. Under the Michigan law, such a conclusion by the jury would be grounds for acquittal.

by CNB