Dr. Jack Kevorkian has assisted in suicide No. 32, attending the death of a 63-year-old California woman with cancer, his lawyer said Friday.
The death of Shirley Kline of Oceanside, Calif., was the fourth Kevorkian has attended since his May 14 acquittal on assisted suicide charges.Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said Kline had bowel cancer that had spread to her kidneys, liver and other organs and "was in terrible pain."
Two people brought the woman to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak shortly after midnight, spokeswoman Yvette Monet said. Kline was pronounced dead at 12:14 a.m., she said.
Fieger arrived at the hospital shortly afterward and told a nurse that the woman was "a patient of Dr. Kevorkian's," Monet said. Emergency room personnel tried in vain to resuscitate the woman before releasing the body to the Oakland County Medical Examiner.
Fieger said Kline died sometime Thursday with Kevorkian, her son and two friends present. He did not identify the son or friends.
Fieger would not say where Kline died and said he did not know how she died or how long she had been in contact with Kevorkian. Kline had been treated at California's Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, he said.
Reached at his home this morning, Kevorkian told The Associated Press: "I can't make any statements. Talk to Fieger." He then hung up.
Kevorkian has attended 31 suicides since 1990 in which death resulted from the inhaling of carbon monoxide. The cause of death in the latest suicide was not known.
Attempts to stop Kevorkian in court have failed. He has been acquitted of five deaths in three trials.
Following his most recent court victory in May, Kevorkian said nothing short of being "burned at the stake" would stop his crusade for physician-assisted suicide.