Kevorkian Challenges State Law, Seeks License Reinstatement

Dr. Jack Kevorkian--the Michigan doctor dubbed “Dr. Death” for involvement in 20 suicides, including those of two Californians--went to court this week in Los Angeles, challenging the state’s prohibition on physician-assisted suicide and seeking to have his medical license reinstated.

In a set of lawsuits filed Wednesday in state and federal courts, Kevorkian charged that the state statute making it a crime for one person to help another commit suicide is unconstitutional.

“This irrational law tortures people instead of trying to relieve their suffering,” the physician said in a prepared statement issued by his lawyer, Lawrence Silver.

Kevorkian also challenged the revocation of his license to practice medicine in California.

The Medical Board of California voted July 29 to revoke Kevorkian’s medical license, citing the suicide of 44-year-old Orange County real estate agent Jonathon Grenz as evidence of Kevorkian’s incompetence.

Grenz was found to have cancer in 1992, and doctors removed his voice box and tongue. But at the time he committed suicide with Kevorkian’s help, he had recovered from the cancer and was grieving over the loss of his mother, according to testimony from Grenz’s friend Linda Healy, a Newport Beach real estate agent.

Grenz was one of two Californians who journeyed last year to Michigan, where Kevorkian lives, so that the 65-year-old former pathologist could assist in their suicides, California Deputy Atty. Gen. Thomas Lazar told the medical board.

The other, a 40-year-old cancer patient named Martha Ruwart of the San Diego County community of Cardiff by the Sea, took her own life at a home in Waterford, Mich., with Kevorkian by her side.

In revoking the license, the state charged that Kevorkian had violated his Hippocratic oath and national medical ethics standards that ban physician-assisted suicides.

Under state law, Kevorkian had 30 days in which to appeal the revocation of his license. Wednesday was the last day in which he could go to court, Silver said. The lawyer said the appeal is based on the argument that the state ban is unconstitutional and that California’s decision to punish Kevorkian for an act committed in another state is an unlawful “export” of state law beyond jurisdictional boundaries.

Neither Lazar nor representatives for the state medical board could be reached for comment.

The state medical board now has 30 days in which to respond to the state court action and 20 days in which to respond to a twin complaint filed in federal court, Silver said.