Kevorkian Again Jailed on Suicide-Assist Charge : Medicine: Retired pathologist, 65, refuses bail and tells lawyer he will not eat in custody. He surrenders at a suburban Detroit police station.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has been challenging Michigan’s assisted-suicide ban since it took effect in February, was jailed Tuesday evening for the second time this month on a charge of violating the statute.

Kevorkian entered the Oakland County Jail west of the Detroit suburb of Pontiac after surrendering at a police station near his home and spending much of the day in two different courtrooms.

At his arraignment earlier in the day, Royal Oak District Judge Daniel Sawicki set a $50,000 cash bond and a preliminary examination date of Dec. 10.

Kevorkian shouted as he left the hearing: “Why don’t they make it a million? You call this a civilized society?”

Kevorkian attorney Michael Schwartz said his client would not eat in custody. The 65-year-old retired pathologist refused solid food during an earlier three-day stay in the Wayne County Jail in Detroit, ingesting juice, water and vitamins. That hunger strike ended when a lawyer posted Kevorkian’s bond because he thought the doctor was getting too much publicity.

Kevorkian then attended the death of Ali Khalili, 61, a physician with bone cancer. Khalili traveled last week from his home in suburban Chicago to inhale carbon monoxide in Kevorkian’s apartment in the northern suburb of Royal Oak. Khalili’s death last week was the 20th suicide attended by Kevorkian since 1990 and the fourth since the state ban took effect. It is under investigation, authorities said.

The latest charge against Kevorkian involved the October death of Merian Frederick, 72, of Ann Arbor, who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

A five-week investigation included the execution of eight search warrants. A videotaped Kevorkian counseling session with Frederick and a form he kept regarding her death were among the items seized, said Oakland County Prosecuting Atty. Richard Thompson. Other papers, Thompson said, showed that Kevorkian had taken delivery of 35 canisters of carbon monoxide since May of 1992.

Oakland County Sheriff John F. Nichols said Kevorkian will be provided with “water or juices or whatever else he needs” and monitored by the jail’s medical staff.

Kevorkian will be force-fed if necessary to keep him alive, Nichols said. “We’ve had hunger strikes here before,” Nichols said. “Somewhere along the line they go to the hospital and get intravenous feedings. We had one (inmate) in there three or four times. We’re fairly used to having them.”

Schwartz said he had already had one offer from a New York City man to post Kevorkian’s bond, but said his client has instructed him to refuse such help.

If somebody does post Kevorkian’s bond, he can refuse to leave, Thompson said.

Thompson is a longtime opponent of Kevorkian’s crusade to legalize doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. He charged Kevorkian with murder in three earlier deaths, but those charges were dismissed because Michigan had no law against helping people kill themselves.

The state Legislature passed the ban to try to halt Kevorkian’s activities while a special commission debates whether and how to regulate assisted suicide.

If Kevorkian is convicted of breaking the suicide law, he could face four years in prison and a $2,000 fine on each count.