NATION : Suicide Machine Put on Hold
A judge today ordered the inventor of a suicide device not to help anyone else take their own life until prosecutors determine whether he broke the law by helping a 54-year-old woman kill herself.
Judge Alice Gilbert issued a temporary restraining order that prevents Dr. Jack Kevorkian from using the device, and enjoined him from using any other means to assist in a suicide.
Kevorkian had asked the judge to allow him to form a committee to establish an international “planned death policy.”
Kevorkian told Gilbert he wanted to form a committee with members from all sectors of society that would study his device, which involves injection of coma- and death-inducing drugs, and the circumstances under which it could be used.
The panel would establish a policy “for the world” for use of his invention, Kevorkian said, promising he would refrain from using it again until the committee completed its work.
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