“Yes, we need euthanasia, for certain cases where people are in comas or too immobile to even press a button.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“The patient decides when it’s best to go.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“When your conscience says law is immoral, don’t follow it.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’ve seen schizophrenics who are so hopeless, you couldn’t cheer them, and their lives are miserable and they end up as suicides. That’s not right.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I knew I was getting into one of the most illegal things in the world. It was the right thing to do.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I am not a sentimental person.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Five to six thousand people die every year waiting for organs, but nobody cares.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m not the kind of guy who has best friends.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“The Supreme Court of the United States… has validated the Nazi method of execution in… concentration camps, starving them to death.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I would not want to live with a tube in my neck and not be able to move a finger. I wouldn’t – that to me is not life.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“She made the decision that her existence had lost its meaning. And you cannot judge that.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Among doctors in general, I think more than half support what I’m doing.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That’s not a smile.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“What are friends? Some people are nice. Some people aren’t. There are some I’m fairly close with… we talk.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“We are all terminal.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I hate to say this, but I’ll repeat it: After death, all we know that you do is stink.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“What I think a doctor should do is prevent disease, by any means necessary.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I have no regrets, none whatsoever.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’d find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“My religion centers in different areas than what’s considered conventional religion.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It’s her choice.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“You can cite me for contempt, Your Honor. I don’t care.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I will go to what they call a court. Only they call it a court.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Maybe I won’t stay out of prison. Who knows?”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“None of them want to delay. Understand that. None of them.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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?”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I don’t persuade to suicide.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Let’s hope you feel better now.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Rotten travesty. Yeah. Send me to jail for contempt. Try that. Go ahead.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“There’s no doubt I expect to die in prison.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“All the big powers they’ve silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I didn’t do this for other people; I did this for me. I fought for this right for me – does that sound selfish?”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Look at the forces against me. They don’t want me out. They’re afraid I’ll cause trouble if I get out.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I gambled and I lost. I failed in securing my options for this choice for myself, but I succeeded in verifying the Dark Age is still with us.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“When history looks back, it will prove what I’ll die knowing.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“If a man is terrified, it’s up to me to dispel that terror.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“This could never be a crime in any society which deems himself enlightened.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m not radical.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Everyone is going to die.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I can paint in jail.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m not a romantic.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“You’ve gotta know what death is to know life!”
― Jack Kevorkian
“The single worst moment of my life… was the moment I was born.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I suppose, if helping a patient die is killing, I suppose I’m a killer.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I think the Supreme Court does have the authority, which is not used, to declare a blanket right for all people, all adults.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“How can you regret helping a suffering patient?”
― Jack Kevorkian
“The law is cruel.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I have a natural right to do whatever I want with my body… as long as it doesn’t affect anybody else or any other property.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“If Christ can die in a barn, I think the death of a human in a van is not so bad.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Fear controls you.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Liberty means more to me than life itself.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Many support what I am doing.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“Freedom has a price. Most people aren’t willing to pay it.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“The law doesn’t create a right.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I’m not lying to myself like most people.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“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.”
― Jack Kevorkian
“I don’t crave publicity, you know.”
― Jack Kevorkian
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