ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

JULIA PRODIS

OYAL OAK, Mich. (AP)—For the second time in a month, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sent to jail on charges of violating Michigan’s law against assisted suicide. Kevorkian’s attorney said the retired pathologist was prepared to starve to death.

Police declared Kevorkian a fugitive after he failed to show up for arraignment on the charge filed late Monday. But his lawyer, Michael Schwartz, said he had promised Kevorkian would turn himself in Tuesday, which he did.

After Kevorkian surrendered to Royal Oak police, District Judge Daniel Sawicki ordered him held on $50,000 cash bond.

Schwartz said Kevorkian would resume his hunger strike in the Oakland County Jail.

‘‘He will do that until he is released or unfortunately until he is dead,’‘ the attorney said.

‘‘They can’t force him to take sustenance,’‘ he said. ‘‘That will be a horrible thing … people strapping him down, putting tubes down his mouth, torturing Dr. Kevorkian. That’s a horrible prospect.’‘

Kevorkian went on a hunger strike during a three-day stay last month in the jail in neighboring Wayne County, refusing solid food and taking only juice, water and vitamins.

He was bailed out by a lawyer who thought the doctor was getting too much publicity.

The latest charge involves the Oct. 22 death of Merian Frederick of Ann Arbor, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease. She died in Kevorkian’s presence by inhaling carbon monoxide in an apartment Kevorkian rented next to his own.

After the judge set bail, Kevorkian shouted: ‘‘Why don’t they make it a million? You call this a civilized society?’‘

Following the hearing, Kevorkian was taken to U.S. District Court in Detroit for a hearing on his claim that police illegally searched his apartment building Sunday night.

Police said they had a tip that a suicide was about to take place in the apartment and waited until a search warrant arrived before entering.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen refused to order police not to violate Kevorkian’s constitutional right to privacy, as Kevorkian had requested.

‘‘He is incarcerated, and there is no immediate likelihood his incarceration will end any time soon,’‘ the judge said. ‘‘If he is released, you are welcome to come back to court.’‘

Kevorkian, 65, has attended 20 deaths since 1990. Five of those occurred after the assisted suicide ban took effect Feb. 25.

The law, designed specifically to stop Kevorkian from helping people die, is before the state Court of Appeals. Kevorkian and his lawyers maintain that the ban is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

Kevorkian had been free on bond while awaiting trials in January and February in the deaths of two men who inhaled carbon monoxide in his presence.

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

The measure outlawing assisted suicide set up a commission to study the issue and make a recommendation by May 25. Unless new legislation is passed within six months, the law expires.

Among the commission’s members is Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair, whose office is prosecuting Kevorkian in two of the three cases he’s now charged in.

O’Hair has said he favors doctor-assisted suicide under certain terms and has written a proposed law to detail those terms.