Suicide Victims Were Adamant, Lawyers Claim

DETROIT —  Dr. Jack Kevorkian repeatedly asked two women who sought his help committing suicide if they wanted to reconsider, even in the hours before they died, say lawyers representing both the doctor and the women’s families.

Kevorkian also asked Sherry Miller three times whether she still wanted to die after Miller watched Marjorie Wantz use a machine that Kevorkian devised so she could give herself a lethal injection, the Detroit News reported Sunday.

“Jack continually asked her if she was sure,” said Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian’s lawyer. “Each time, Sherry said, ‘Yes.’ ”

Moments later, Miller pulled a mask over her face and inhaled carbon monoxide from a tank, Fieger and his partner, Michael Alan Schwartz, told the newspaper.

Police found the bodies of Miller, 43, and Wantz, 58, in a cabin in a state park 40 miles north of Detroit Wednesday night after Kevorkian reported the assisted suicides.

Miller was incapacitated by multiple sclerosis. Wantz suffered from papilloma virus, a painful pelvic condition. Neither case was life-threatening.

Kevorkian intended to hook both women to an intravenous device but resorted to carbon monoxide for Miller because her veins proved too delicate for a needle.

Kevorkian also forgot a tourniquet and had to go get one.

About 5 p.m., Wantz tugged one of two strings tied to her fingers, allowing an anesthetic into her system. When she became unconscious, her arm dropped and the second string came off, allowing lethal potassium chloride into her bloodstream, the lawyers said.

Soon after, Miller, lying on a cot about six feet from Wantz, put on the mask and pulled a lever allowing the gas to flow. Kevorkian pronounced her dead about 45 minutes later and called police.

Kevorkian, a 63-year-old retired pathologist, was charged with first-degree murder after he helped an Oregon woman with Alzheimer’s disease commit suicide in June, 1990. The charge was dismissed in December, 1990.