Suicides

Military investigators found traces of poison in a body recovered from a suspected North Korean spy boat sunk by South Korea's navy, officials here said Saturday. The finding indicated that some of the crew members may have killed themselves before their vessel was sunk Friday, Defense Ministry officials said. The low-slung speedboat, carrying an estimated four people, was spotted as it approached Yosu, a small port on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula.

After four years of watching Dr. Jack Kevorkian take part in dozens of suicides, the Michigan Legislature has passed a bill aimed at stopping him. It approved a ban Thursday on assisted suicide, and Gov. John Engler said he will sign it. Effective Sept. 1, the legislation would make assisted suicide a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Kevorkian reacted defiantly to the passage of the bill. "Don't you know you cannot legislate morality?

Each of us was the stake Impaling the other. We struggled Quietly through the streets, affirming each other Dream-maimed and dream-blind. From "9 Willow Street" A poem by Ted Hughes to Sylvia Plath included in "Birthday Letters" It is a love story, after all. After 35 years, dream-maimed Ted Hughes, Britain's poet laureate, has come in from the silence, his voice suffused with passion and pain.

Campaigning for the post of Oakland County prosecutor two years ago, David Gorcyca pledged to stop spending Michigan taxpayer dollars on longshot prosecutions of the world's most provocative and resilient right-to-die proponent. He won the election, ousting the incumbent in suburban Detroit. On Monday, Gorcyca found himself in a position not unlike that of his predecessor, if perhaps even more difficult.

Bridge authorities are considering a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge, where about 1,200 people have jumped to their deaths. Aesthetic concerns have shelved such proposals since 1968, when the first barrier idea was pitched. At a meeting Friday, a bridge district subcommittee directed engineers to modify a proposed barrier--or find a new one--that fit the bill.

\o7 Peter Finch: "I'm going to blow my brains out right on the air, right in the middle of the 7 o'clock news. . . ." William Holden: "We could make a series out of it. 'Suicide of the Week.' Oh, hell, why limit ourselves? 'Execution of the Week.' " Finch: " 'Terrorist of the Week.' " Holden: "I love it. Suicides. Assassinations. Mad bombers. Mafia hit men. Automobile smashups. The 'Death Hour'! Great Sunday night show for the whole family."

A videotape showing Dr. Jack Kevorkian giving a man a lethal drug dose might not be enough to convict him of assisted suicide, a prosecutor said. CBS plans to air portions of a tape Kevorkian gave the network showing a man's death from an injection administered by the retired pathologist. Kevorkian told "60 Minutes" that Thomas Youk, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, died Sept. 17 at Youk's suburban Detroit home. A Michigan law that took effect Sept.

When principals at "60 Minutes" learned two weeks ago that Dr. Jack Kevorkian was offering them a tape of him killing a patient, their first reaction was skepticism. Mike Wallace, who had never met Kevorkian, viewed him as "kind of shopworn and a publicity seeker." And Don Hewitt, the show's executive producer, "had no interest, none whatsoever," recalled Wallace.

Is it worse to commit a murder than to assist in a suicide? In the eyes of the law, yes, there is a big difference. But in the realm of ethics, there is only a shade of distinction between the two acts. Some would say there is no difference at all. After the CBS news program "60 Minutes" aired a videotape Sunday showing pathologist Jack Kevorkian injecting a dying man with a lethal toxin, Michigan county prosecutors announced they were investigating it as an apparent homicide.

Kenneth Nighbert lived a block from the beach in Kennebunk, Maine. Two weeks ago, the retired Air Force pilot flew his American flag upside down from his second-floor sun deck, a universal cry for help. Then he went inside, tied a plastic bag around his head and died. Nighbert, 49, was at the end of a long losing streak. He believed he had been unfairly passed over for promotion to lieutenant colonel. A business he started went bust, forcing him to take a $9-an-hour factory job.