Thursday, March 7, 1996

        Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Controversy Moves Beyond Kevorkian 

        U.Va. Doctor Testifies At Kevorkian Trial

	On Wednesday, March 6, a federal appeals court in San Francisco 
overturned Washington state's ban on physician-assisted suicide, ruling that 
the terminally ill have a constitutional right to a "dignified and humane 
death." In the first such case to be decided by a federal appellate panel, 
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state's duty to preserve life 
is outweighed by the right to control "the time and manner of one's death," 
according to an article in today's Washington Post. 

	Though the ruling affects only the nine Western states covered by the 
appeals court, a lawyer for Dr.Jack Kevorkian said he would cite the case 
today in seeking dismissal of assisted suicide charges against Kevorkian in 
Michigan.

	Closing arguments in the Kevorkian trial are scheduled for today 
with the case expected to go to jury later this afternoon. 

	The prosecution's only witness on medical ethics, Dr. Carlos Gomez, 
who specializes in the treatment of terminally ill patients at the University 
of Virginia, testified at Kevorkian's trial on Tuesday, March 5.

	Gomez is strongly opposed to physician-assisted suicide in terminally 
ill patients. As medical director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at 
U.Va., he feels that physicians should treat terminally ill patients' pain 
and suffering, not help them commit suicide. 

	"Dr. Kevorkian is a symptom of the problem the medical profession has 
in caring for terminally ill patients," Gomez said. "Allowing physicians to 
assist in suicides opens up a dangerous ethical area in which the rights of 
vulnerable and non-consenting patients could be jeopardized."

Additional information on Dr. Gomez: 

*One of 13 Soros Faculty Scholars working to improve the care for the dying 
as part of the Project of Death in America, sponsored by the Open Society 
Institute.  

* Author of Regulating Death: Euthanasia and the Case of the Netherlands
(New York: The Free Press, 1991)

* Principal investigator on Palliative and Terminal Care: An educational, 
research, and service initiative in General Medicine at the University of 
Virginia Health Sciences Center project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson 
Foundation.

To arrange an interview with Dr. Gomez, please call 804-924-1953 or contact 
Marguerite Beck at 804-924-5679. U.Va. has satellite capabilities.
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