Michigan hotels call for end to spate of assisted suicides

A spate of assisted suicides, with the bodies of terminally ill people being left in hotel rooms, has struck the US state of Michigan in recent weeks.

Although euthanasia activist Dr Jack Kevorkian is believed to be involved in the suicides, there is no incontrovertible evidence to support this. Police, who treat each case as a murder, cannot pinpoint who is involved, and all the victims' families have told prosecutors that if Kevorkian were to be prosecuted they would be willing to testify on his behalf.

The only personal effects left with the bodies give their names and social security numbers.

"In most circumstances, there's only a note saying, ‘Contact our lawyer', who also happens to be Kevorkian's lawyer," said a spokesman for Oakland County prosecutor's office.

A spokeswoman for Choice Hotels International, whose Quality Inns have had to deal with bodies, said: "Leaving his patients' bodies in the hotel rooms so they'll be found is illegal. They check in, pay in advance and he causes their deaths.

"The owners don't like him using their hotel rooms as a dumping ground and they are asking him to stop."

The Michigan suicides have been occurring every three weeks for the past five months, with the most recent being last week at an airport hotel in Wayne County.