200 Rally at Home of Noted ‘Suicide Doctor’

More than 200 people on both sides of the assisted-suicide issue demonstrated and prayed Saturday outside Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s suburban Detroit apartment.

More than 100 supporters waved placards with such slogans as “Whose life is it, anyway?” and chanted “Dr. K is OK.”

About 100 others held a prayer vigil at a rally organized by Operation Rescue, the group that opposes abortion and euthanasia.

Royal Oak police made the two sides take turns demonstrating in front of Kevorkian’s home.

The Operation Rescue protest was organized to oppose assisted suicide and to “rescue Kevorkian from himself,” said Lynn Mills, a postal worker and Operation Rescue leader in the Detroit area.

The counterdemonstration in support of the self-styled suicide doctor was organized by Dawn Haselhuhn, who said she believes people should be able to die in any way they choose.

Haselhuhn, a diabetic whose kidneys are failing, said she foresees a day when she might want to end her own suffering.

Last week, Mills gave authorities a document purporting to show that Hugh Gale, a 70-year-old man who died with Kevorkian’s assistance, tried to stop the procedure at the last minute. Citing Mills’ evidence, prosecutors are considering murder charges against him.

Gale’s widow has said that her husband never abandoned his determination to die.