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TS Commits Suicide While Kevorkian Is Present
By the Associated Press
Contributed by Laura Mason
PONTIAC, Michigan
January 11, 1999
Dr. Jack Kevorkian was present when a transsexual
committed suicide Sunday evening at a motel here, his attorney said.
Carrie Hunter, 35, of San Francisco suffered from AIDS-related
complications, said attorney Michael Schwartz. Both Kevorkian and Dr.
Georges Reding . a Kalamazoo psychiatrist who has said he is doing a
""fellowship'' in assisted suicide with Kevorkian
. were present at the woman's death, Schwartz said.
Ms. Hunter, who began her life as a man and had an operation to change her
sex, had uncontrollable nausea, an enlarged spleen and trouble controlling
her bowels. She also had lesions in her lungs and indications of a form of
pneumonia found in AIDS patients that is often fatal.
Police were notified of the body by owner of Oakland County's Sagamore
Motel about 8 p.m. Pontiac police Sgt. Robert Ford said the body was found
with a note with Kevorkian and Reding's names, along with the woman's
name, age and disease. Kevorkian, 69, has refused to name the exact number
of suicides he has attended. But at a recent news conference he put the
number at ""somewhere between 80 and 100.'' The state Legislature has
tackled the question of assisted suicide in recent days. Although the
state Senate approved a bill banning the practice, the House is expected
to vote it down.
Another bill to put the question to voters was also put
forward in the House, increasing the chances that the competing bills with
mean a legislative deadlock on the issue. Last year, Kevorkian, Reding and
another associate were charged with 19 criminal counts covering 10 deaths.
The charges were filed by former Oakland County prosecutor Richard
Thompson. All charges later were dropped by Thompson's successor, David
Gorcyca.
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