2nd Assisted-Suicide Case Spurs Concern in Michigan

Michigan must not become a haven for residents of states with specific laws against assisted suicide, a prosecutor said today as a California man, whose cancer-ravaged wife ended her life in a motel, was being held on murder charges.

Authorities were unable to prosecute a suburban Detroit doctor who helped a woman die using a “suicide machine,” and that apparently led Bertram R. Harper, 72, of Loomis, Calif., to believe Michigan was a suicide haven, officials said.

But while Dr. Jack Kevorkian remains free, Harper is being held at Wayne County Jail on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Harper was arrested Sunday, shortly after his wife Virginia, 69, died in a room at the Comfort Inn in Romulus on Detroit’s outskirts. Their daughter, Shanda McGrew, was present but was not charged.

Kevorkian gained attention when he used a suicide device he had created to help an Alzheimer’s patient end her life June 4.

Virginia Harper developed breast cancer two years ago, and brought to Michigan a note from a physician indicating she had only two weeks to live.

Before ingesting sleeping pills and placing a plastic bag over her head, she wrote a note saying she wished to die in the presence of her husband and daughter.

The family flew to Michigan on Saturday after learning from the widely publicized death of Janet Adkins, 54, of Portland, Ore., that Michigan has no specific law against suicide or assisting in it.

Kevorkian has not been charged in the death of Adkins, 54, of Portland, Ore. The 62-year-old retired pathologist used his device, which released lethal chemicals into her system, in his van at a county park.

As to why one assisted suicide resulted in charges and the other hasn’t, Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair said: “You’ll have to ask (Oakland County Prosecutor) Dick Thompson that. We felt we had a legal and factual basis to charge Mr. Harper.”

He indicated that Michigan wished to discourage such incidents.