Assisted-suicide advocate Kevorkian dies

“[His] intent, I believe, has always been to gain notoriety,” she said at the time.

Mr. Kevorkian also drew some backlash from fellow right-to-die advocates. Derek Humphry, who founded the Hemlock Society USA, now known as Compassion & Choices, called him a “lone ranger” who gave the movement a bad name.

“Kevorkian was never a part of the organized right-to-die movement,” Mr. Humphry wrote after he was released from prison in 2007. “Political activists in the right-to-die movement in the 1990s dreaded the thought that Kevorkian might show up during their campaigns because he was such a negative figure in the opinion polls.”

Mr. Humphry also criticized him for making his ill patients travel across the country for his help. “He would not move out of his local county; therefore, those who could not travel to him went on suffering,” he wrote.

Furthermore, his love for the spotlight prevented him from treating more patients, Mr. Humphry said. “If he had not challenged the law enforcement on television to prosecute him, then he could have continued to help people instead of languishing in jail.”

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