
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993                   TAG: 9312180102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT                                LENGTH: Medium

KEVORKIAN FREED ON VOW NOT TO ASSIST SUICIDES

A frail Dr. Jack Kevorkian was released from jail Friday after promising not to help anyone commit suicide for the time being. He was hospitalized to recuperate from his 17-day hunger strike.

Kevorkian was freed when a judge in neighboring Oakland County lowered his bond from $50,000 to $100 and ordered Kevorkian to wear an electronic monitoring device. A supporter who vowed to commit suicide if Kevorkian died in jail posted bond.

Kevorkian, 65, was driven straight from the Oakland County Jail to Sinai Hospital in Detroit, where he requested and ate a bowl of lentil soup, said his lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger.

Kevorkian, who has been at 20 suicides since 1990, has been charged in two of the cases with illegally assisting a suicide. The law, which was enacted to stop him, has been challenged as unconstitutional.

Kevorkian had refused solid food after he was jailed Nov. 30, saying he was prepared to die for his beliefs. Last weekend, he was briefly hospitalized for chest pains.

Kevorkian told Oakland County Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper, "I must and will pledge that I will not participate in . . . what I call medicide until the matter is resolved by higher courts of this state or a vote of the public at large."

Cooper said the $50,000 bond was excessive. However, she also stressed that Kevorkian would face contempt charges if he helps anyone else commit suicide while Michigan's appellate courts consider the issue.

Kevorkian is charged in Oakland County with assisted suicide in the Oct. 22 death of Merian Frederick, a 72-year-old woman who had Lou Gehrig's disease. He faces a second charge in Wayne County in the death of Thomas Hyde, 30, who also suffered from the degenerative nerve disorder.

Earlier this week, a Wayne County judge presiding over a third case struck down the state law as an unconstitutional violation of a person's right to basic liberties. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday refused a prosecutor's request to stay that ruling.

by CNB