Top 97 Quotes & Sayings by Jack Kevorkian
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American activist Jack Kevorkian.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
I don't crave publicity, you know.
I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.
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'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.
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.
Freedom has a price. Most people aren't willing to pay it.
You've gotta know what death is to know life!
I'm not lying to myself like most people.
She made the decision that her existence had lost its meaning. And you cannot judge that.
I'm not radical.
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.
The patient decides when it's best to go.
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.
I can paint in jail.
I will go to what they call a court. Only they call it a court.
All the big powers they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.
I didn't do this for other people; I did this for me. I fought for this right for me - does that sound selfish?
Among doctors in general, I think more than half support what I'm doing.
When your conscience says law is immoral, don't follow it.
I have no regrets, none whatsoever.
Maybe I won't stay out of prison. Who knows?
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.
There's no doubt I expect to die in prison.
I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.
My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.
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.
What are friends? Some people are nice. Some people aren't. There are some I'm fairly close with... we talk.
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.
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.
When history looks back, it will prove what I'll die knowing.
This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.
The single worst moment of my life... was the moment I was born.
Everyone is going to die.
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.
Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.
I think the Supreme Court does have the authority, which is not used, to declare a blanket right for all people, all adults.
If a man is terrified, it's up to me to dispel that terror.
You can cite me for contempt, Your Honor. I don't care.
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 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.
Fear controls you.
My religion centers in different areas than what's considered conventional religion.
The law is cruel.
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.
Yes, we need euthanasia, for certain cases where people are in comas or too immobile to even press a button.
Five to six thousand people die every year waiting for organs, but nobody cares.
Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.
None of them want to delay. Understand that. None of them.
I suppose, if helping a patient die is killing, I suppose I'm a killer.
What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.
Let's hope you feel better now.
Rotten travesty. Yeah. Send me to jail for contempt. Try that. Go ahead.
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 Supreme Court of the United States... has validated the Nazi method of execution in... concentration camps, starving them to death.
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.
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.
We are all terminal.
I knew I was getting into one of the most illegal things in the world. It was the right thing to do.
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.
I don't persuade to suicide.
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