Euthanasia campaigner Dr Jack Kevorkian has demanded to be charged with the illegal act after the TV screening of a video which shows him administering fatal drugs to a terminally ill man. Mr Thomas Youk (52) had asked the doctor to carry out the mercy killing and his family had also agreed.
The screening of the death, which took place last September, by the CBS 60 Minutes programme has led to protests from church leaders and many of the station's affiliates refused to show it.
The controversial doctor, nicknamed "Dr Death", was shown injecting Mr Youk who was in the advanced stages of the Lou Gehrig disease which gradually destroys muscles.
On the programme, Dr Kervorkian commented on the procedure and answered questions.
Mr Youk (52) who was sitting up wearing his glasses was first sedated and then given drugs which stopped his breathing and then his heart. He was an accountant who also restored and raced classic cars.
Dr Kervorkian has called Mr Youk's death his first euthanasia. He claims to have helped about 120 people take their own lives by a "suicide machine" where terminally ill patients trigger a device which injects them with the fatal drugs. Mr Youk did not have the strength to do this, according to an Oakland county medical examiner.
The doctor has been acquitted three times on assisted suicide charges following the deaths of five people in Michigan where his medical licence has been revoked. The Michigan law against assisted suicide was strengthened shortly before Mr Youk's death.
In an interview with the Oak- land Press of Michigan, Dr Kerorkian said he wanted "a showdown". "I want to be prosecuted for euthanasia. I am going to prove that this is not a crime, ever, regardless of what words are written on paper."
But the Oakland county prosecutor, Mr David Gorcyca, said he would not be rushed into a decision based solely on the videotape. There would have to be a full review, he said, and he was trying to obtain two unedited videotapes showing Dr Kevorkian's conduct in Mr Youk's death.
The doctor's lawyer, Mr David Gorosh, said he was not consulted about the plan to have the videotape televised across the nation.
One of Mr Youk's daughters has expressed regret about the screening of his death and said Dr Kevorkian had "gone too far".
On the programme, Mr Youk's wife, Melody, said that she was "so grateful to know that someone would relieve him of his suffering. I don't consider it murder. I consider it the way things should be done."