Jack Kevorkian's Quotes

Many support what I am doing.

Maybe I won't stay out of prison. Who knows?

My intent was to carry out my duty as a doctor, to end their suffering. Unfortunately, that entailed, in their cases, ending of the life.

My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.

None of them want to delay. Understand that. None of them.

Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.

She made the decision that her existence had lost its meaning. And you cannot judge that.

The law doesn't create a right.

The law is cruel.

The patient decides when it's best to go.

The single worst moment of my life... was the moment I was born.

The Supreme Court of the United States... has validated the Nazi method of execution in... concentration camps, starving them to death.

This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.

We are all terminal.

What I think a doctor should do is prevent disease, by any means necessary.

When history looks back, it will prove what I'll die knowing.

You can cite me for contempt, Your Honor. I don't care.

I don't enjoy good food. I don't enjoy flashy cars. I don't care if I live in a dump. I don't enjoy good clothes. This is the best I've dressed in months.

I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.

First of all, do any of you here think it's a crime to help a suffering human end his agony? Any of you think it is? Say so right now. Well, then, what are we doing here?

I want some colleague to be free to come help me when I say the time has come. That's what I'm fighting for, me. Now that sounds selfish. And if it helps somebody else, so be it.

I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.

The Jews were gassed. Armenians were killed in every conceivable way... So the Holocaust doesn't interest me, see? They've had a lot of publicity, but they didn't suffer as much.

The patient's autonomy always, always should be respected, even if it is absolutely contrary - the decision is contrary to best medical advice and what the physician wants.

There is nothing anyone can do anyway. The public has no power. The government knows I'm not a criminal. The parole board knows I'm not a criminal. The judge knows I'm not a criminal.

All the big powers they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.

The American people are sheep. They're comfortable, rich, working. It's like the Romans, they're happy with bread and their spectator sports. The Super Bowl means more to them than any right.

Am I a criminal? The world knows I'm not a criminal. What are they trying to put me in jail for? You've lost common sense in this society because of religious fanaticism and dogma.

As a medical doctor, it is my duty to evaluate the situation with as much data as I can gather and as much expertise as I have and as much experience as I have to determine whether or not the wish of the patient is medically justified.

When your conscience says law is immoral, don't follow it.

You're basing your laws and your whole outlook on natural life on mythology. It won't work. That's why you have all these problems in the world. Name them: India, Pakistan, Ireland. Name them-all these problems. They're all religious problems.

If you don't have liberty and self-determination, you've got nothing, that's what this is what this country is built on. And this is the ultimate self-determination, when you determine how and when you're going to die when you're suffering.

I'm not lying to myself like most people.

Let's hope you feel better now.

What are friends? Some people are nice. Some people aren't. There are some I'm fairly close with... we talk.

Freedom has a price. Most people aren't willing to pay it.

I hate to say this, but I'll repeat it: After death, all we know that you do is stink.

Listen, when you take my liberty away, you've taken away more-something more precious than life. I mean, what good is a life without liberty? Huh? None.

I always said all my life if I wasn't born and they gave me the question I'd say I don't want to be born.

I didn't do this for other people; I did this for me. I fought for this right for me - does that sound selfish?

What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.

Fear controls you.

How can you regret helping a suffering patient?

I will go to what they call a court. Only they call it a court.

I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.

My religion centers in different areas than what's considered conventional religion.

A transfer of money should never be involved in this profound situation. Although illness is profound, too, but medicine's a business today. It's a business.

Anytime you interfere with a natural process, you're playing God. God determines what happens naturally. That means when a person's ill, he shouldn't go to a doctor because he's asking for interference with God's will. But of course, patients can't think that way.

It's the boredom that kills you. You read until you're tired of that. You do crossword puzzles until you're tired of that. This is torture. This is mental torture.

Among doctors in general, I think more than half support what I'm doing.