Jack Kevorkian Quotes

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?

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

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

If Christ can die in a barn, I think the death of a human in a van is not so bad.

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.

[Persons] who are recognized as citizens in any one state of the Union [have] the right to enter every other state, whenever they pleased... full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might meet; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.

The patient decides when it's best to go.

Let's hope you feel better now.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Well, let's take what people think is a dignified death. Christ - was that a dignified death? Do you think it's dignified to hang from wood with nails through your hands and feet bleeding, hang for three or four days slowly dying, with people jabbing spears into your side, and people jeering you? Do you think that's dignified? Not by a long shot. Had Christ died in my van with people around Him who loved Him, the way it was, it would be far more dignified. In my rusty van.

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

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

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

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.

I don't crave publicity, you know.

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 don't persuade to suicide.

I'm afraid of sudden death. I'd like to know I'm going to die. That's why death row wouldn't be so bad, although it's not pleasant. And cancer, inoperable, wouldn't be bad. That's not pleasant either. But to drop dead suddenly, it's hard on everybody else. My family, my relatives, my friends. It's just not a good way to go. I want to know I'm going to die.

I have no regrets, none whatsoever.

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

I got to dislike parties, like Jefferson and Madison. I think they're harmful. But the system is flawed so badly. I like what Plato said, long ago. Democracy is fit only for a small country. Can't survive in a large country.

If a man is terrified, it's up to me to dispel that terror.

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.

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

I'm not lying to myself like most people.

The public can tolerate a Nazi America.

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

I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.

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.

The American Medical Association says the humane way is to let people starve and thirst to death. If you did that to an animal, youd be put in jail immediately ... In the face of such insanity masquerading as authority, who wouldnt be strident?

Everyone is going to die. Aren't you interested in what's going to happen?

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

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

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.

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

I am not a sentimental person.

There's no doubt I expect to die in prison.

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