26 suicides and no signs of letting up for Dr. Death
Jack Kevorkian has attended his 26th assisted suicide. The body of Patricia Cashman, a 58-year-old woman, was found in the back seat of a car. The official cause of death is homicide by carbon monoxide poisioning.
Kevorkian does not deny his part in the death of Cashman, On Larry King Life, Nov. 9th, Kevorkian challenged the prosecution of the state of Michigan. “I dare you to charge me. If you don’t you’re either a coward or a liar.”
Kevorkian’s lawyer and longtime associate, Geoffrey Fieger, has stated that Cashman had suffered from breast cancer for three tears that the cancer had spread through her body and that recently she had been unable to walk. On CNN News on Nov. 9th Fieger acknowledged that Kevorian was present and assitssed at the death of Cashman after studying her medical files and determining that she was terminally ill.
Also interviewed on CNN during the same broadcast was the Deputy Medical Examiner, Detroid Michigan, Dr. Kanu Virani, who lised the death of Cashman as homicide. He acknowledged that preliminary examination of Cashman’s internal organs show no signs that she was suffering from cancer. In other interviews, the medical examiner’s office stated that although her right breast had been previously removed, there were no signs of residual cancer in the breast, in the lymph nodes or in any other organs. Virani said that Cashmanj’s brian and spinal cord would undergo examination, including bone marrow testing for cancer.
Fieger claims that Cashman’s medical file reveals evidence of cancer with metastasis to the bone as evidenced by bone scans and CAT scans. Two doctors back Fieger’s claims that Cashman was in pain and terminally ill.
The medical condition of Cashman prior to the assisted suicide is significant. If the medical examiner’s office finds that she was in good health, it will be the first time Kevorkian assisted in a suicide on person who was not permanently ill.
In any event, Kevorkian can add one more name to those shoes lives he has helped to end. Kevorkian, 67, faces assisted suicide charges in four deaths in Oakland County. He has admitted to attending 26 suicides since 1990, most involving carbon monoxide poisoning.
