Dr. Kevorkian Assists Suicide of a Breast Cancer Patient

Dr. Jack Kevorkian attended the suicide of a cancer patient on Monday. It was his sixth assisted suicide.

Catherine A. Andreyev, 46, of Coraopolis, Pa., turned on a device that allowed her to inhale carbon monoxide through a mask, police said.

“I consider this a well-tested, well-controlled, well-thought-out medical procedure,” Kevorkian said.

Kevorkian was charged with murder after the first three deaths, but each time the cases were dismissed because Michigan has no law against assisted suicide. Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, who charged Kevorkian in previous cases, said he wouldn’t file charges in the latest case.

Kevorkian’s Michigan medical license has been suspended, but he remains licensed in California.

“This is a case of medicide,” said Kevorkian’s attorney, Michael Schwartz. “It is a situation where the object was to alleviate the pain and suffering for patients who wish to have that pain and suffering put to an end.”

Andreyev was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986, when her cancerous right breast was removed, Schwartz said. Despite chemotherapy, the cancer spread to her left lung, which was removed. By 1991, her other lung was infected, and cancer had spread to her breast bone, he said.

She was single and had no children, Schwartz said.