March 1, 1996
Web posted at: 9:45 p.m. EST
PONTIAC, Michigan (CNN) -- Testifying Friday in his assisted-suicide trial, Dr. Jack Kevorkian said he feels obligated to help his patients die, but that doing so causes him great "pain and anguish." Kevorkian will return to the witness stand Monday.
Kevorkian told the court he uses the "most rapid, painless, sure and humane method available" to ease his patients' pain.
"It is satisfying to have fulfilled my duty as a physician: to have ameliorated and eliminated that patient's pain and suffering in accordance with that patient's autonomous, determined, and unwavering wish," Kevorkian said.
But when asked by his attorney Geoffrey Fieger if it's his duty to carry out the suicides, Kevorkian interrupted, "Then ensues the death, which causes me pain and anguish and sometimes tears. If that were my aim, would I cry?" (272K AIFF sound or 272K WAV sound)
Kevorkian, who acknowledges assisting 27 suicides, is accused of helping Merian Frederick, 72, and Dr. Ali Khalili, 61, to commit suicide in 1993 by carbon monoxide poisoning, violating a now-expired Michigan law against assisted suicide.
Frederick suffered from multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's disease, and Khalili suffered from bone cancer.
If convicted, the retired pathologist faces up to four years in prison on each count.
Kevorkian's testimony, his first in the trial, came as a surprise, though he has criticized the trial and called it a return to the Dark Ages.
On the stand, Kevorkian said he had never wanted his patients to die and had convinced a number of them to seek a solution other than suicide.
"I talk to them and convince them to go on with further treatment or something else, and I'm delighted when they turn away," he said.
When it comes to the suicide procedure, the doctor said he always hopes patients will "pull the clip and then take off the mask," referring to the mechanism that feeds carbon monoxide gas to his patients.
Kevorkian said he has never pulled the clip himself, leaving that to the patient.
He also told jurors he has never taken money for aiding a suicide. Since his retirement, he said he has lived on savings, Social Security and a pension totaling about $900 a month.
Kevorkian admits attending 27 deaths since 1990. He faces another trial April 1 in the 1991 deaths of Sherry Miller and Marjorie Wantz.
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