Retired doctor/assisted suicide activist, charged with manslaughter in New York State.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Stephen Miller

Marlene Lenthang reported for NBC news on February 6, 2024 that Stephen P. Miller, of Tucson, Arizona, a former doctor and advisory board member with the group Choice and Dignity, was arrested and charged with manslaughter and assisting a suicide in a New York motel in November 2023. 

Assisted suicide activists, Derek Humphry and Richard MacDonald are also advisory board members with Choice and Dignity.

Lenthang stated:

The investigation started shortly before noon on Nov. 9, when police responded to a report about an unconscious and unresponsive person at a Super 8 on Washington Avenue in the city of Kingston, about 100 miles north of New York City, Kingston police said in a statement Friday.

First responders found a person who initially appeared to have died by suicide alone in the motel room, police said.

But further investigation led to evidence that a second person had been present who “contributed to or assisted in the suicide,” the statement said.

An investigation by police and the Ulster County district attorney’s office led to an arrest warrant’s being issued for Miller citing second-degree manslaughter under the state penal code regarding a person who "intentionally causes or aids another person" to die by suicide.

Ed Shanahan reported for the New York Times on July 8, 2024 that the woman who died was Doreen Brodhead, a 59-year-old Kingston, New York native.

Shanahan also reported that Stephen Miller served three years in jail for tax evasion. The article stated:

In 2006, court records show, federal prosecutors charged him with tax evasion. He had hidden more than $1 million in income offshore with the help of a corrupt financial planner, they said.

He was convicted despite insisting that the planner had duped him. His wife divorced him, and he spent three years in prison and three more on probation. Regulators in Texas and California revoked his medical licenses, according to government documents; his licenses in Arizona and Massachusetts expired.

After leaving prison in 2009, Mr. Miller moved to Tucson, Ariz. His older brother, Alan Miller, spent part of each year there, and they lived together for about a year until Stephen moved into a trailer. His main income was $2,000 a month in Social Security benefits.

Shanahan wrote about the evidence on how Doreen Brodhead died. [Based on my concern for people experiencing suicidal ideation I will not share this information.]

Robert Rivas, the former general counsel for the Final Exit Network a group that assists suicides in states where it is not legal, told the New York Times that:

philosophically speaking, Mr. Miller “probably deserves a medal as far as I’m concerned.” As a legal matter, however, Mr. Rivas added: “He’s toast.”

Shanahan interviewed Jim Schultz, the board president of Choice and Dying:

...he had only learned of Mr. Miller’s role in Ms. Brodhead’s death from news accounts. He declined to comment on the criminal charges. He said he was impressed by the “dedication to his cause” Mr. Miller had shown by traveling to New York to be with Ms. Brodhead.

In his release agreement, Miller's lawyer agreed that his client wouldn't be involved in anything related to assisted suicide. Shanahan reported that Miller was recently involved with a

Mr. Schultz said Mr. Miller had recently participated in a Choice and Dignity class on “deliberate life completion,” including alternatives when legal methods like medical aid in dying are not available.

The discussion included a how-to on the option Ms. Brodhead chose.

Assisted suicide is not about autonomy. It is a form of abandonment of a person in a time of need ... abandoned to death.