As courts wrestle with Michigan's law on doctor-assisted suicide, some members of a state commission say the Legislature should reverse the ban enacted to combat Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Proposals offered Monday by three subcommittees of the Michigan Commission on Death and Dying would permit people expected to live less than six months to commit suicide with a physician's help."People should have the legal right to receive assistance and others should have the legal right to lend it," said commission member Martin Kotch, representing the State Bar. "Our opinion is that the Constitution supports the right to make such a choice."
While a majority of the commission members appeared to favor reversing the state ban, others strongly disagreed.
"Once you legalize assisted suicide, there is no way to control the abuses that occur," said Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thomp-son. He is one of the prosecutors who has brought charges against Kevorkian.
The Legislature passed the law in February making assisted suicide a felony to stop Kevorkian, a retired pathologist who has been present at 20 deaths since 1990, including five since assisting suicide was made illegal.
Lawmakers created the commission as part of the law creating the assisted-suicide ban. The commission is due to report back to the Legislature by May, and then the Legislature has six months to act on its findings before the assisted- suicide ban is due to expire.
Two Wayne County judges have declared the law unconstitutional in separate challenges. The law remains in effect pending appeals. In Oakland County, Kevorkian was ordered to stand trial.
Kevorkian staged a 17-day hunger strike in jail before being freed Friday after promising not to assist in any more suicides until higher courts decide on the law.
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Kevorkian freed
"Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian, who engaged in an 18-day hunger strike to protest his incarceration on assisted-suicide charges, left a Detroit hospital and vowed to bring the right to doctor-assisted suicide before voters. Kevorkian was released from jail in nearby Oakland County last week.