By JUSTIN HYDE

The Associated Press

04/14/99 6:02 PM Eastern

DETROIT (AP) -- Dr. Jack Kevorkian says he will refuse to eat while imprisoned on his murder conviction, and a new jail policy prevents him from being force fed.

The assisted-suicide advocate, sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 25 years in prison, said he would begin a hunger strike immediately, The Oakland Press reported Wednesday.

"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," Kevorkian said.

It was not know Wednesday whether he followed through.

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

The change came after state lawyers realized the previous policy requiring force-feeding of an inmate was contrary to a 1996 state court order that banned a prison from feeding a man against his will.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Matt Davis said the policy change had nothing to do with Kevorkian.

Kevorkian attorney Mayer Morganroth questioned the timing of the policy change.

"Isn't that assisted suicide?" he asked.

"That certainly appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to our client or they would have done it before," Morganroth said.

Kevorkian was convicted of second degree murder for injecting Thomas Youk, 52, with a lethal dose of chemicals on in September at Youk's request.

Kevorkian, who says he has helped 130 people kill themselves since 1990, sent a videotape of the death of the Lou Gehrig's patient to "60 Minutes," hoping to force the issue of assisted suicide into the limelight.

The tape and the show's interview with Kevorkian were the prosecution's main evidence. Kevorkian has been tried in the past, but the trials ended in acquittals and one mistrial.