Jack Kevorkian Quotes

I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.

My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering. It's got to be decriminalized.

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.

Rotten travesty. Yeah. Send me to jail for contempt. Try that. Go ahead.

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.

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

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.

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.

Despite the solace of hypocritical religiosity and its seductive promise of an after-life of heavenly bliss, most of us will do anything to thwart the inevitable victory of biological death.

I knew I was getting into one of the most illegal things in the world. It was the right thing to do.

In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients' ease but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonging and even magnifying patients' dis-ease.

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

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

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

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

Five to six thousand people die every year waiting for organs, but nobody cares.

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.

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

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'm not the kind of guy who has best friends.

Dying is not a crime.

Yes, we need euthanasia, for certain cases where people are in comas or too immobile to even press a button.

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.

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.

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

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.

I'm for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It's her choice.

Liberty means more to me than life itself.

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

I suppose, if helping a patient die is killing, I suppose I'm a killer.

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?

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.

I learned to smile by going through hell. Now I know what hell is and you don't. I can't tell you how it is, cause you can't do it with words.

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.

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

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

When you have nothing left to burn, you must set yourself on fire.

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.

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

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

I have no regrets, none whatsoever.

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

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

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

I think the Supreme Court does have the authority, which is not used, to declare a blanket right for all people, all adults.

You've gotta know what death is to know life!

My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.

The patient decides when it's best to go.

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.