Kevorkian to Sue to Keep Medical License : Euthanasia: ‘Dr. Death,’ who helped a Costa Mesa man and 19 other people end their lives, will also challenge state law prohibiting physician-assisted suicide.

Jack Kevorkian, dubbed “Dr. Death” for having assisted in 20 suicides, including that of a Costa Mesa man, will file suit within the next 10 days in an effort to retain his California medical license, a Los Angeles law firm announced Thursday.

Kevorkian also contends that the state law prohibiting physician-assisted suicide is unconstitutional and plans to challenge the matter in both state and federal court, said his West Coast attorney, Lawrence Silver.

The Medical Board of California voted recently to revoke Kevorkian’s medical license, effective midnight tonight, citing the suicide of 44-year-old Orange County realtor Jonathon Grenz as evidence of Kevorkian’s incompetence.

Grenz was found to have cancer in 1992, and doctors removed his voice box and tongue. But at the time he committed suicide with Kevorkian’s help, he had recovered from the cancer and was grieving over the loss of his mother, according to testimony from Grenz’s friend Linda Healy, a Newport Beach real estate agent.

Grenz was one of two Californians who journeyed last year to Michigan, where Kevorkian lives, so that the 65-year-old former pathologist could assist in their suicides, said California Deputy Atty. Gen. Thomas Lazar.

The other, cancer patient Martha Ruwart, 40, of the San Diego County community of Cardiff by the Sea, took her own life at a home in Waterford, Mich., with Kevorkian by her side.

Kevorkian, 65, is appealing a ruling by a Michigan court that seeks to have him tried on murder charges. His medical license is under suspension in Michigan; California is the only other state to have granted him a medical license.

The physician obtained his California license in 1957 and worked from 1979 to 1982 at two hospitals in Long Beach. He lives in Troy, Mich., near where each of the suicides has taken place.

Kevorkian passed up numerous opportunities to contest his California license suspension at a series of hearings before an administrative law judge in San Diego. Silver said he did so for a reason, preferring to have the matter heard in Superior Court and in U.S. District Court.

“As a result, it was not right to raise this issue until the board concluded its proceedings,” Silver said.

Saying that “Mr.--not Dr.--Kevorkian is finished in California,” Lazar predicted that the state will have no trouble in keeping the license revoked.