Doctor might escape conviction on a technicality

A contentious legal struggle that is likely to be settled on narrow technicalities rather than broad ethical questions has emerged over the assisted suicide of Thomas Youk. The 52 year old man from Michigan, United States, had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an inoperable disease of the nervous system that is popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Jack Kevorkian, 70, the Michigan doctor who claims to have assisted the suicides of over 130 terminally ill patients, faces up to seven …