‘Dr. Death’ Likens U.S. Medical Ethics to Those of Nazi Doctors

A defiant doctor, speaking for the first time since helping two women commit suicide last week, on Friday likened medical ethics in the United States to those of Nazi doctors.

“I will not follow the example of those immoral Nazi doctors, which the rest of the doctors in this country seem to be doing,” Dr. Jack Kevorkian told a secular humanist conference by telephone from Michigan.

Kevorkian, who lives in suburban Detroit, advocates doctor-assisted suicide for people suffering from terminal or severely painful diseases. He called euthanasia a person’s “last civil right” and blamed doctors for not defending it. The American Medical Assn. opposes doctor-assisted suicide.

Doctors in Nazi Germany should have rejected orders to torture and conduct experiments on Holocaust victims, Kevorkian said.

“Our civilization is equally culpable because we have equally immoral laws which, on the contrary, force doctors not to do what they should be doing,” he said.

Kevorkian’s comments were carried over loudspeakers at a conference sponsored by Free Inquiry, a secular humanist magazine. He did not discuss the Oct. 23 suicides of Sherry Miller and Marjorie Wantz.

Prosecutors are investigating Kevorkian’s role in the women’s deaths.

Miller, 43, had multiple sclerosis, which in most cases is not terminal. Wantz, 58, suffered from a painful--but not terminal--disease that required 10 pelvic operations.

Kevorkian’s lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, has shielded his client from public appearances since the women killed themselves in a remote cabin north of Detroit, using machines provided by Kevorkian.

Last year, Kevorkian, who has been nicknamed “Dr. Death,” helped Janet Adkins, who had Alzheimer’s disease, commit suicide in his van. He hooked Adkins to his machine, and she pushed a button giving herself a lethal injection. He was charged with first-degree murder.

The charge was dismissed by a judge who ruled that Michigan had no law against doctor-assisted suicide. But Kevorkian could face contempt of court charges stemming from last week’s suicides because another judge had prohibited him from using his suicide machine again.

Wantz used a suicide device similar to the one Adkins used. Miller breathed carbon monoxide fumes.