Dr. Kevorkian Present at an 18th Suicide

Dr. Jack Kevorkian attended his 18th suicide hours after being ordered to stand trial on a charge of helping a man to kill himself, and his lawyer said Kevorkian would go on a hunger strike if he’s jailed.

“If he’s imprisoned, he will not eat and Dr. Kevorkian will not survive very long in prison,” Geoffrey Fieger said of his gaunt, 65-year-old client.

He said the man who committed suicide Thursday had signed a thank-you note for Kevorkian, saying, “It’s a nicer world because of thoughtful people like you.”

“God help us all if the prosecutors anywhere can put us in jail for a doctor rendering that kind of compassion,” Fieger said.

Police were summoned Thursday night by a 911 call to the Redford Township home of Donald and Eunice O’Keefe. There, they found Kevorkian and O’Keefe, a retired, 73-year-old Ford Motor Co. worker with bone cancer, dead in his bed. He had a mask and tube over his nose and mouth, and a canister was nearby, Police Chief David Parker said. Mrs. O’Keefe was out of town, he said.

Kevorkian has refused to answer police questions.

Prosecutors said they will likely decide by Monday whether to levy additional charges or ask the court to raise Kevorkian’s bond. They are awaiting an autopsy report and the results of further investigation.

“We’re certainly not going to go running into court and say he was there when somebody died. We’d get laughed out of court,” Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Kenny said. “If we can establish that he did participate and assist, we would certainly be seeking to get bond changed.”

Kenny was meeting with Redford Township police Friday.

Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair accused Kevorkian of defying the law--especially since just hours earlier he was allowed to remain free on $100,000 bond after being ordered to stand trial on a charge of breaking Michigan’s new law banning assisted suicide.

That felony charge came after Kevorkian admitted helping Thomas Hyde Jr., 30, who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease, commit suicide Aug. 4 by inhaling carbon monoxide through a face mask.

Kevorkian had publicly detailed his role in Hyde’s death. Upon Fieger’s advice, however, Kevorkian kept quiet Friday about his exact role in O’Keefe’s death.

“Unless you lost all your marbles, you know what happened,” Fieger told reporters.

He refused to say if Kevorkian actually supplied the carbon monoxide, face mask and tubing to help O’Keefe die--elements prosecutors need to charge him.

Fieger also said it was coincidence that O’Keefe chose to take his life the same day Kevorkian was bound over for trial.

“Mr. O’Keefe made the decision. If his decision happened to be on the same day that a prosecutor was attempting to imprison Dr. Kevorkian, do you think Dr. Kevorkian or anybody should say, ‘You know, Mr. O’Keefe, you’re suffering greatly, you’re screaming in pain, but it will look bad if you pick today. Why don’t you suffer one more day?’ Isn’t that absurd?”

Fieger handed out copies of a thank-you card, bordered with flowers, from the O’Keefes and their grown son, Alan, to Kevorkian.

“It’s a nicer world because of thoughtful people like you. Thank you. With sincerest appreciation, Donald, Eunice and Alan O’Keefe.”

“I think it’s almost unbelievable that you could be talking to a prosecutor about prosecuting Dr. Kevorkian for the death of someone who Mr. O’Keefe wrote a thank-you card to,” Fieger said.