In a hearing last Wednesday, Michigan prosecutors tried to invalidate most of the reputed "Dr. Death's" anticipated defense arguments. To gain acquittals in his client's three previous trials, Kevorkian's former attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, relied on emphasizing the patients' suffering and argued that his client only intended to relieve pain.

But, prosecutor John Skrzynski argued that, euthanasia and consent are not legally viable defenses. Skrzynski said the defense was planning to focus on the failing health of Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease, at the time of his encounter with Kevorkian. Their intent, Skrzynski said, is to generate sympathy for Youk and advocate that the jury nullify Michigan law. The defense wants to implicitly encourage jurors to condone Kevorkian's actions, said Skrzynski.

"This case is not about the right to die. It's about the right to kill," Skrzynski said. "[Kevorkian] admits it to Mike Wallace on the ['60 Minutes'] tape. He's saying ... look at this man, he's terminally ill and his life is not worth living anymore, he has a right to self-determination and he's consented. He's telling jurors consent is a defense, and it is not."

Skrzynski also wanted Judge Jessica Cooper to instruct jurors at the trial that consent and euthanasia are not legal defenses and that they cannot acquit Kevorkian for those reasons. Prosecutors wanted the trial to focus solely on the elements of murder: whether Kevorkian intended to kill Youk and whether he in fact killed him, not the ethics of euthanasia or the debilitating effects of Lou Gehrig's disease.

However, Kevorkian's attorney, David Gorosh said in court that he does not plan to use a consent or euthanasia defense. He suggested that he plans to prove his client only intended to relieve Youk's suffering.

Gorosh also argued that at least one or both of the charges should be dropped against his client. He claimed that prosecutors cannot charge Kevorkian with both assisted suicide and first-degree murder because the terms contradict one another. Youk's death, he argued, cannot be considered both a suicide and a murder. He claimed Youk and Kevorkian never made a specific plan of death. According to Michigan law, a person can only be charged with assisted suicide if they specifically plan the method of death, and Gorosh claimed that particular plan did not exist.

However, in her ruling Tuesday, Judge Cooper denied the motion for dismissal and said Youk's videotaped death provided enough evidence for the charges against Kevorkian.

On Nov. 25, 1998, Michigan prosecutors charged Kevorkian with first-degree murder, criminally assisted suicide and delivery of a controlled substance after viewing unedited and edited tapes of Youk's death, which was televised Nov. 23 on CBS' "60 Minutes."

A national audience saw Kevorkian challenge prosecutors to charge him because he wanted to settle the ongoing debate over euthanasia. According to Kevorkian, Youk died Sept. 17, approximately three weeks after Michigan enacted a law making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

In both the unedited and edited versions of the tape, Kevorkian is shown having a weak and barely intelligible Youk sign consent forms for his assisted death. Like Kevorkian's previous patients, Youk initially thought he was going to inject himself with lethal doses of drugs by operating an apparatus. But unlike his previous cases, Kevorkian administered the fatal "death potion" to Youk himself.

While he conceded that Youk could have operated the machine, Kevorkian said that he persuaded Youk to allow him to directly administer the fatal drug because it was more efficient and more humane. He said he told Youk of his intent to use him to extend the national debate over assisted suicide to euthanasia.

Jury selection in Kevorkian's trial is set to begin March 22. If convicted of first-degree murder, the 71-year-old retired pathologist could face life in prison. Kevorkian has vowed that he will starve himself to death if sent to prison.

— Bryan Robinson