NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      ROYAL OAK, Michigan (CWNews.com) - Assisted suicide activist Jack Kevorkian and an assistant were arrested Thursday night after scuffling with police outside a hospital where the two men were bringing the body of an apparent assisted suicide victim.

      Kevorkian was arraigned Friday morning and was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, apparently because he refused to go voluntarily. Kevorkian sat slumped in the wheelchair and refused to answer the judge's questions as he was arraigned on charges of assault, battery and resisting arrest for allegedly shoving police officers. His associate, Dr. Georges Reding, was charged with interfering with a police officer and resisting arrest. Both men were later released without having to post bail. They are due back in court on June 2.

      Kevorkian and Reding took the body of a 26-year-old quadriplegic from Aptos, California, to William Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak at 10:23 pm Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Collette Stimmell said. Oakland County Medical Examiner Dr. L.J. Dragovic said an autopsy this morning revealed the man died of a lethal injection. Dragovic said the case has been ruled a homicide, given that the man was a quadriplegic and medically could not inject himself. Kevorkian has admitted helping more than 100 people die since 1990.