Kevorkian Faces Homicide Charge He Was Present At Death Of 27-Year-Old Suffering From Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The latest death to take place in the presence of Dr. Jack Kevorkian was ruled a homicide Saturday by a medical examiner.

The mother of 27-year-old Nicholas John Loving said the so-called “suicide doctor” brought peace and hope to her son’s final days.

Loving had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disorder known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was the 23rd person known to die in the retired pathologist’s presence, and the youngest.

An autopsy showed Loving’s illness was not yet terminal, and he was not physically capable of causing his own death by carbon monoxide poisoning, said the Oakland County medical examiner, Dr. Ljubisa J. Dragovic.

“Someone had to make significant preparations for him,” Dragovic said.

Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson said Dragovic’s ruling will be just one factor in deciding whether to bring charges against Kevorkian. Sheriff’s officials would not give any information about their investigation Saturday.

It was the second death Kevorkian had attended in a week and the second since April 24, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide.

Kevorkian faces charges of murder and assisting a suicide in five other Michigan cases. Loving died on the same day Michigan’s Court of Appeals upheld a 1991 injunction barring Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.

Thompson said neither Kevorkian nor Loving’s mother, Carol, who was also present at the death Friday, was cooperating with investigators.

Kevorkian has long said he does not feel bound by court rulings or laws against assisted suicide. He contends that suffering people have a fundamental right to decide to die.

On Monday, Kevorkian attended the death of the Rev. John Evans, 78, of Royal Oak, a retired Unitarian minister. Evans also died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The medical examiner said Saturday he was waiting for the results of a police investigation before deciding whether Evans’ death was a homicide or suicide.

Kevorkian’s lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said at a news conference with Carol Loving Saturday that his client is guilty only of “compassion.”

“If Carol Loving is a criminal, if her son is a criminal, if Dr. Kevorkian is a criminal, then we’ve got some real problems in this world,” Fieger said.

Carol Loving said her son asked her to write a letter to Kevorkian after seeing him on a TV show in February.

“Dr. Kevorkian gave something to my son the medical profession refused, he gave my son control over his own destiny,” Carol Loving said.

“Once my son knew the good doctor had accepted his plea to bring an end to his suffering, he was able to regain his dignity as a human being and look forward to his day of deliverance,” she read from a statement.

“I spent 18 months as caregiver to my son and witnessed every moment of his agony,” she said. “The good doctor’s intervention was a blessing.”

Fieger again called for the assisted suicide issue to be put before Michigan voters. Kevorkian will “not stop doing what’s right,” he said.