By Alex Schadenberg, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
HELENA, September 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. James Bischoff of Ennis Montana has been sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to negligent homicide and fraudulently obtaining drugs in the euthanasia death of Kathryn Dvarishkis, who was 85 years old.
Dr. Bischoff was very upset with the 6 year sentence saying that he would not have pleaded guilty if he knew that his plea bargain which included a 2 year sentence was not to be honoured.
Dr Bischoff euthanized Kathryn Dvarishkis on July 16, 2000. At the time he claimed that he only used enough drug to ease her pain.
Sandy Dvarishkis, the daughter of Kathryn, stated that Bischoff had given her mother an injection which failed to cause her death, only to return with another injection which resulted in her death. The daughter also claimed that Bischoff spoke several times with her mother about euthanasia and that he was the one to open the topic.
Bischoff was also convicted of fraudulently obtaining drugs. He had obtained 48,000 doses of narcotics from a wholesale drug distributor over a one year period without proper documentation.
Bischoff originally claimed that he didn’t realize that euthanasia was illegal in the United States when he killed Kathryn Dvarishkis.