By Brian Harmon / The Detroit News
August 28, 1997
The Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office said it found no visible signs of cancer in right-to-die advocate Janet Good, who for two years made public her battle with pancreatic cancer, saying she would choose the day her life would end.
Deputy Medical Examiner Kanu Virani, who conducted the autopsy, said he found no evidence that Good died of natural causes. Typically, the internal organs and tissue of pancreatic cancer sufferers are scarred with hard, easy to notice, whitish tumors, several cancer specialists said.
"I know what to look for in pancreatic cancer. Usually, you can obviously see the effects of the disease right away," Virani said. "There was no signs of disease I could see that could end her life."
Good, 73, took her own life Tuesday in her Farmington Hills home. It's not known if Jack Kevorkian was at his long-time associate's side when she committed suicide; neighbors said they saw his white van parked outside Good's home.
In many of the 54 suicides Kevorkian has said he attended, autopsies have shown the person would not have died within six months. Such deaths have fueled the debate over the ethics of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.