Kevorkian says he's on hunger strike, no force feeding to occur

Kevorkian, sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 25 years in prison, said he would begin a hunger strike immediately, The Oakland Press reported yesterday.

Whether he followed through wasn't known yesterday. Kevorkian attorney Mayer Morganroth said he could not release that information.

"I know they are going to force-feed me, but my captivity is still enslavement, and I am not going to go along with it," the Pontiac newspaper quoted Kevorkian as saying.

But state prison officials said they reversed their policy on force feeding Tuesday, the same day the 70-year-old retired pathologist was sentenced.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesperson Matt Davis said the policy change had nothing to do with Kevorkian, and was signed into effect before his sentence was announced.

Davis said the change came after state lawyers realized the previous policy requiring force-feeding if an inmate is on a hunger strike didn't comply with a 1996 state court order that banned prison officials from feeding a man who wanted to starve himself to death.

Word of the reversal brought a chuckle and rhetorical question from Morganroth: "Isn't that assisted suicide?"

"I don't know if that policy will change back tomorrow," he said. "That certainly appears to be a knee-jerk reaprison. But as far as the movement's concerned, this could be good for it."

04-15-99