Tuesday, September 28, 1999
Dead Woman's Family Sues Reding

By Jeremy Pawloski
Journal Staff Writer
 Donna Brennan's family has filed a malpractice and wrongful death suit
against Dr. Georges Reding for his alleged role in the Rio Rancho woman's
death.
 Brennan, a 54-year-old multiple sclerosis patient, died last August after
taking a dose of pentobarbital, a sedative. The suit alleges that Reding
committed malpractice by administering the drug.
 "On or about Aug. 30, 1998, Donna Brennan became a patient of Defendant
Georges Reding, at which time he undertook ... to treat and care for Donna
Brennan," reads the suit. "... Defendant breached the duty of care which he
owed to Donna Brennan under the state laws of New Mexico."
 Attorney Stevan Schoen, who is representing Brennan's sister Karen Lawler
in the suit, said a doctor administering a lethal drug to a patient clearly
constitutes malpractice.
 "It is my understanding that the American Medical Association has
interpreted the code of ethics for the medical profession to mean that
physicians should not and can not assist in the death of a patient," he said
in an interview Monday.
 Michael Schwartz, a Michigan attorney who has represented Reding in the
past, could not be reached for comment Monday.
 Schoen did not put a dollar figure on the amount of damages Brennan's
family is seeking, but said they may be eligible to recover her lost wages
and remuneration for the "loss of the enjoyment of her life," based on life
expectancy.
 Schoen said a letter written by the AMA to the Michigan Attorney General's
Office in 1995 clearly states the AMA's position on assisted suicide.
 The AMA wrote the letter as a response to the assisted suicides allegedly
being committed by Jack Kevorkian. Reding was a Kevorkian associate.
 "Physician-assisted suicide is simply incompatible with the physician's
role as healer," reads the letter written by the general counsel of the AMA.
"When faced with patients who are terminally ill or suffering, physicians
must relieve their suffering by providing adequate comfort care."
 Reding has been charged before with Kevorkian in connection with
assisted-suicide deaths, but he was not prosecuted.
 The civil lawsuit was filed earlier this month in 13th Judicial District
Court.
 Reding also faces first-degree murder charges for his alleged role in
Brennan's death. He was supposed to be arraigned Sept. 3 on the murder
charges, but failed to show up for his court date.
 In an affidavit for a search warrant of Reding's Galesburg, Mich., home,
police alleged that rental car, airline and hotel records placed Reding in
Albuquerque the day before Brennan's Aug. 30, 1998, death.
 Reding's whereabouts are unknown. A warrant has been issued for his arrest,
but the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department in Michigan has been unable to
locate him at his Galesburg address, said Detective John Francis of the Rio
Rancho Department of Public Safety.
 Francis said he did not know if Reding has left the United States.
 At Reding's scheduled arraignment, Katherine Watson of New Mexico Death
with Dignity said members of Reding's office told her Reding was on vacation
in Europe.