Suicide Machine Inventor to Face Trial : Law: A March arraignment is scheduled for a retired physician who is charged with first-degree murder for helping two women die.

Retired Dr. Jack Kevorkian was ordered Friday to stand trial for first-degree murder for helping two women commit suicide last October in a secluded state park cabin.

District Judge James Sheehy dismissed a drug trafficking charge against the 63-year-old suicide machine inventor, but scheduled a March 12 arraignment on the two murder counts. Kevorkian remains free on a $10,000 personal bond.

Kevorkian and his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said they were not surprised by Sheehy’s ruling. Fieger said he anticipated a favorable verdict at the trial, where his client will face a mandatory life prison term without parole.

“I am a physician, unconditionally dedicated to the honorable and ethical practice of alleviating hopelessly irremediable physical suffering,” Kevorkian said later in a statement.

A prosecutor said the Michigan Legislature needs to give some guidance in physician-assisted suicide cases. The state has no law against assisted suicide.

Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, gained nationwide attention after a Portland, Ore., woman with Alzheimer’s disease killed herself in 1990 using his suicide machine.

A judge later dismissed a first-degree murder charge against him in that case because assisted suicide is not illegal in Michigan. Kevorkian was ordered, however, not to assist in any more suicides.

Sheehy acknowledged the absence of a law, but he said some serious questions have been raised in the Oct. 23 deaths of Marjorie Wantz, 58, of Sodus and Sherry Miller, 43, of Roseville. Both women had painful ailments but were not terminally ill.

Kevorkian called the sheriff’s department to report their deaths, and acknowledged to police that they were doctor-assisted suicides.

“Causation (of the deaths) has become a question of fact, and questions of fact are decided by jury trial,” the judge said in his ruling.

Miller’s death was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Wantz died from a lethal injection of drugs, which led to the drug trafficking charge that Sheehy dismissed.

State Sen. Fred Dillingham, who has sponsored legislation to outlaw assisted suicides in Michigan, said he was pleased that Kevorkian’s case will go to trial.

“I think the judge has done the right thing,” Dillingham said. “I think we have to continue to push for the legislation.”

At the Hemlock Society in Eugene, Ore., attorney Cheryl Smith said she was surprised that Kevorkian would be tried in the deaths.

The society supports doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

“I had expected they would drop those murder charges,” she said. “I think that it’s tough to find probable cause for murder because these women committed suicide. He provided the means.”

Assistant prosecutor Lawrence Bunting said, however, that he believes Wantz and Miller were incapable of making a rational decision.

Wantz “was mentally ill,” Bunting told reporters. “There was nothing wrong with this lady except she needed mental health treatment and now she’s dead because Kevorkian decided to take the law into his own hands. People like Kevorkian can do all sorts of damage.”

Bunting said the trial probably will begin in about three months.