This morning, there is a new twist in the story of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. A Massachusetts nurse, Judith Curren, went to Michigan last week and became Dr. Kevorkian's 35th assisted suicide. Kevorkian claims that Curren suffered from the painful muscle disorder fibromyalgia, along with chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome. But now the coroner's office says an autopsy found no sign of disease. Five times Dr. Kevorkian has faced criminal charges without a conviction. Let's go to Detroit now and talk to his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, and with Dr. L.J. Dragovic, Oakland County, Michigan's chief medical examiner.

Good morning to both of you, gentlemen.

Dr. L.J. DRAGOVIC (Chief Medical Examiner, Oakland County, Michigan): Good morning.

Mr. GEOFFREY FIEGER (Dr. Kevorkian's Attorney): Good morning, Mark.

McEWEN: Dr. Dragovic, your office is performing the autopsy. What are your initial findings?

Dr. DRAGOVIC: The findings simply of--no significant findings in the body. There is no evidence of significant disease process. We are further detailing the toxicological analysis to see what that substance is. This lady had been injected. And we're also analyzing tissues to see if there are any significant, again, degenerative processes that might have been there. But there is no significant disease process that would have put the--the life of this lady into jeopardy.

McEWEN: Dr. Dragovic, you and Dr. Kevorkian are certainly no strangers to each other. You've bumped heads in the past. Of this assisted suicide, you've said--and I quote--"I think this is a tragedy." Why?

Dr. DRAGOVIC: It is. It is a tragedy when a 42-year-old mother of two children dies in vain. They--they simply approached to--to this case in a very shallow manner without regard for--for all kinds of considerations, and now the rebound effect is that they are trying to patch it up. And I would like to see Dr. Kevorkian make some public comments about it, not Mr. Fieger, because Mr. Fieger is not a physician. You have to realize that whatever he is talking--he is talking secondhand and a little learning is a dangerous thing and misinterpretation is a serious problem on--on his part.

McEWEN: Well, Dr. Dragovic, let me let Mr. Fieger get in on this conversation.

Dr. DRAGOVIC: Sure.

McEWEN: You've been listening, Mr. Fieger. Your thoughts?

Mr. FIEGER: Well, Dr. Dragovic, of course, works with the county prosecutor, who's been persecuting Dr. Kevorkian for the last six years. So you've had some evidence there of his preconceived bias and his positions in this matter. But I find it almost incredible that I have the medical records of Judy Curren, which are documented--Dr. Belle, Dr. Cusherol, Dr. Lipsken--who indicate that she is so desperately ill. Let me read, for instance: 'This patient is so severely ill and at a level of disability as would justify consideration for skilled nursing home admission.' I have documents, Mark, about a foot high documenting her last 20 years of suffering. And to depreciate and to demean her memory, like Dr. Dragovic does not only with her but every patient of Dr. Kevorkian, to me, I find so reprehensible now at this point as to be beyond belief. Dr. Dragovic does an injustice not only to the memory of Judy Curren and her family but every other patient who he declaims in every case is a victim of homicide, simply a victim of their own depression and also a victim of Dr. Kevorkian. This has gone too far, too long. He's exposed himself now.

McEWEN: Dr. Dragovic, you're shaking your head there in disbelief. Why?

Dr. DRAGOVIC: Well, if you listen to Dr. Fieger about all of this and about his foot-high mounds of paper, you will come to a conclusion that in medicine, particularly in pathology, we come to some sort of diagnosis through a debate, but it's not so. It's not a democratic process. It's the findings within the human body that dictate the diagnosis, and that's very--very me--it's--it's a fact. You...

McEWEN: Dr. Dragovic, let me interrupt you just for a second.

Dr. DRAGOVIC: Yes.

McEWEN: Some experts say it's not unusual for patients suffering from these ill--illnesses to have excruciating pain, even commit suicide because of it. Do you question the debilitating effects of these illnesses? Dr. DRAGOVIC: Oh, no, I'm not questioning the debilitating effect of the psychiatric conditions that this lady might have had. All I'm saying is what--what has been found in the body and the rest of it is all rhetoric of Mr. Fieger.

Mr. FIEGER: Let--let me quote--let me quote Dr. Belle here: "I do not feel that mental illness is the cause of any of her activity limitation or her symptom pattern." Here in Detroit, Dr. Dragovic, she was examined by Dr. Georges Reding, a board-certified psychiatrist. She was also examined by Janet Good, who is in the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame and chaired Governor Milliken's task force...

McEWEN: Mr. Fieger, I want to...

Mr. FIEGER: ...on sexual ha...

Dr. DRAGOVIC: We know about...

McEWEN: Hold on just--I want to ask Mr. Fieger just a quick question.

Mr. FIEGER: Sure.

McEWEN: You talked about mental illness. She--Mrs. Curren may have had a chronic and painful illness, but not a terminal one. She was clearly under a lot of mental stress. There is another fly in the ointment and that is charges of assault in the background.

Mr. FIEGER: Yeah.

McEWEN: And Mrs. Curren was the person who called the police to talk about her husband in...

Mr. FIEGER: Right.

McEWEN: ...in this assault case. Put all of this together. Is this a woman--some of the critics of Kevorkian might have said this is a woman who needed help, but not help to die.

Dr. DRAGOVIC: That's correct.

Mr. FIEGER: Well, this is--this is a woman who suffered for 20 years, who also indicated to the police that the source of their discord was the fact that her husband wouldn't agree to take her to Michigan. And that is a precondition with Dr. Kevorkian. But finally--and I do indicate--with her at the time she ended her suffering was Janet Good, former head of Governor Milliken here in Michigan's task force on sexual harassment, also an independent psychiatrist, and also the documents...

Dr. DRAGOVIC: He's making this up.

Mr. FIEGER: ...of all her medical records which say she did not suffer from mental illness. And finally, I have her letters here.

McEWEN: Mr. Fieger, I'm going--I'm going to cu...

Mr. FIEGER: 'Please, please, help me to end this suffering.'

McEWEN: I'm going to cut you off just for a second here, Mr. Fieger. Doctor, your last thoughts?

Dr. DRAGOVIC: Yes. I--I would like Mr. Fieger and Dr. Belle and Dr. Kevorkian and everyone that's interested in the findings of--of what we have from the body of Mrs. Curren to come to our office and review all the materials, all the tissues, and also on Rebecca Badger, the 39-year-old from California who they terminated a month ago that they claimed had multiple sclerosis.

McEWEN: All right. Dr.--Dr. D...

Dr. DRAGOVIC: I--I would like--I...

McEWEN: Dr. Dragovic, we're going to have to leave it here.

Dr. DRAGOVIC: OK.

McEWEN: Thank you so much for--both of you, Mr. Fieger, Dr. Dragovic...

Mr. FIEGER: Thanks, Mark.

McEWEN: ...for being with us this morning. And we'll be back again, I'm sure, watching this case.

Mr. FIEGER: We will.

McEWEN: Thank you very much.

Dr. DRAGOVIC: Thank you.

Mr. FIEGER: Bye-bye.

McEWEN: Jane.

JANE ROBELOT (Co-host): Thanks, Mark.

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