Dentist Won’t Be Charged in Ill Wife’s Suicide : Ethics: Carla Silverman, near death from cancer, took an overdose of sleeping pills. Her husband, Edward, was with her when she died.

A Santa Paula dentist who was under investigation for helping his terminally ill wife commit suicide will not be charged in connection with her death, the Ventura County district attorney’s office said Friday.

Edward Silverman, along with other family members and friends, was at the bedside of his wife, Carla, 50, when she took an overdose of pills Oct. 5. But in a statement released Friday, prosecutors said “it would not be in the interest of justice to prosecute her husband or any of the other persons present at her home when she ingested the drugs which brought about her death.”

Carla Silverman had been suffering from breast cancer, and an autopsy by the Ventura County coroner’s office found that the disease had spread to her brain, bones, liver, lungs and glands, authorities said.

She took a lethal dose of Darvon, lying in a rented bed and surrounded by her husband, son, stepson and several family friends.

At the time of her death, she probably had only weeks to live, authorities said Friday.

“That was an important factor in our decision (not to file charges), but only one of many factors,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee.

The decision followed a two-week investigation of whether Silverman helped his wife obtain the pills she used to take her life. Silverman’s attorney, George Eskin, said Carla Silverman had obtained the pills herself two years ago with the intent of eventually using them to commit suicide.

On Friday, Silverman said he was relieved but still reluctant to discuss the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.

“My lawyer said that when people are sure they did nothing wrong they talk freely and honestly about things that can get them into trouble,” Silverman said. “This has been a long, wrenching experience. I’m thankful the justice system is working.”

The case has been the subject of widespread attention in Santa Paula, where Carla Silverman was well-known for her community activism.

She told as many as 50 people of her plans to take her own life, said former Santa Paula Mayor Kay Wilson-Bolton, a family friend.

“When I think about it I’m amazed that no one did anything, (beforehand) including me,” said Wilson-Bolton, who was among the group of about 10 friends and family members who were with Carla Silverman when she died. “But we all knew this was Carla’s way.”

The case divided both police and prosecutors on moral grounds. Some said Silverman was wrong to stand by while his wife took the pills, while others supported him.

“I would have done the same thing if my wife had asked me,” said Detective Sgt. Gary Marshall, the lead investigator on the case for Santa Paula police.

Marshall said before the decision was released on Friday that some prosecutors in the district attorney’s office had privately expressed similar sympathetic views.

“What he did might violate the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law is based on morality,” Marshall said. “It wouldn’t be morally right to prosecute him. He’s suffered enough.”

Carla Silverman’s last act and the choice of her husband and friends to support her has created a stir that she may have anticipated. On the day she died, she made a 12-minute video on health care reform that she asked to be forwarded to President Clinton.

“Her suicide is absolutely a statement of her beliefs,” said her son, Ron Tippitt.

Carla Silverman was a longtime member of the Hemlock Society, and had told Wilson-Bolton years ago that she would kill herself if diagnosed with a terminal disease, Wilson-Bolton said.

“Maybe her letting go of life will make this the public issue that it needs to become,” Wilson-Bolton said.

Two years ago, a proposition on the ballot that would have legalized doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill was defeated. In Ventura County, the measure failed by a large majority.

Silverman’s doctor at the time of her death, Peter Gaal, is the former chairman of Ventura County Medical Center’s ethics committee. He declined to comment on the case, citing rules governing doctor-patient confidentiality.

The present committee chairman, Dr. James Hornstein, said that while doctors cannot cure the terminally ill, they can relieve their pain, ensuring that each patient dies comfortably at home with their family and friends. He said if Silverman assisted in his wife’s suicide, he should be prosecuted.

“I don’t believe anyone should play God and shorten anyone else’s life under any circumstances,” Hornstein said. “We shouldn’t give that option to people. No one who’s dying should have that option hanging over them, nudging them into ending their own lives for the sake of expediency.”

A memorial service for Carla Silverman was held Sunday at Santa Paula’s Universalist-Unitarian Church, next door to the building where the Silvermans had their dental clinic.

At the crowded service, Melitta Haslund, minister of the church, described Silverman as a brave woman who had resolved to die.

“She died just as she lived, on her own terms, with her husband, her family and friends by her side,” Haslund said. “I visited her on Sept. 12 and she told me about her decision. She knew she would die. I told her she was a courageous person, and she said, ‘No, I’m just a big chicken.’ She said she didn’t want to live in pain, as a vegetable and a burden to her family.”

Friends of Carla’s came forward recalling her life and telling of her kindness. A veterinarian said that she had rescued hundreds of cats each year that would have otherwise been abandoned. A local gardener tearfully recalled how she had helped him start a business.

In her eulogy, Haslund borrowed from an unpublished autobiography that Carla had written for a book called “Women and Their Cats.” She told of Carla’s struggles as a single mother going to college, of her love of animals, and of her eventually meeting and marrying Edward Silverman.

“I’ve always said it’s unfair that a person is finally recognized for her true worth only when she dies,” Edward Silverman said a few days after the memorial service. “She was a great person.”