Judge Asks Legal Views on Assisted Suicide, Abortion
A judge Tuesday challenged lawyers prosecuting Dr. Jack Kevorkian to explain why assisted suicide is outlawed in Michigan when abortion is legal.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Richard Kaufman also said he would rule soon on the constitutionality of Michigan’s 8-month-old ban on assisted suicide.
He scheduled a Jan. 6 trial date for Kevorkian, who is accused of breaking the law by allegedly helping cancer patient Donald O’Keefe of Redford Township commit suicide on Sept. 9.
The Michigan law was passed to stop Kevorkian, who has witnessed 19 suicides since 1990.
Kaufman quoted a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in comparing abortion with assisted suicide.
The decision says issues “involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the 14th Amendment.”
“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe and of the mystery of human life.”
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