Jack Kevorkian

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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
Collection: Best
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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
Collection: Death
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My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Positive
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Freedom has a price. Most people aren't willing to pay it.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Freedom
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I'm for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It's her choice.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Independence
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I'm not a romantic.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Romantic
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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
Collection: Sports
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The patient decides when it's best to go.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Medical
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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
Collection: Medical
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What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Smile
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You've gotta know what death is to know life!
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Death
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I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.
- Jack Kevorkian
Collection: Medical
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Yes, we need euthanasia, for certain cases where people are in comas or too immobile to even press a button.
- Jack Kevorkian
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The single worst moment of my life... was the moment I was born.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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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
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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
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None of them want to delay. Understand that. None of them.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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I hate to say this, but I'll repeat it: After death, all we know that you do is stink.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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When your conscience says law is immoral, don't follow it.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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I'm not the kind of guy who has best friends.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.
- Jack Kevorkian
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She made the decision that her existence had lost its meaning. And you cannot judge that.
- Jack Kevorkian
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If Christ can die in a barn, I think the death of a human in a van is not so bad.
- Jack Kevorkian
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I don't persuade to suicide.
- Jack Kevorkian
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I'm not lying to myself like most people.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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The Supreme Court of the United States... has validated the Nazi method of execution in... concentration camps, starving them to death.
- Jack Kevorkian
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Among doctors in general, I think more than half support what I'm doing.
- Jack Kevorkian
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My religion centers in different areas than what's considered conventional religion.
- Jack Kevorkian
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You can cite me for contempt, Your Honor. I don't care.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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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
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I will go to what they call a court. Only they call it a court.
- Jack Kevorkian
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Maybe I won't stay out of prison. Who knows?
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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Let's hope you feel better now.
- Jack Kevorkian
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This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.
- Jack Kevorkian
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Rotten travesty. Yeah. Send me to jail for contempt. Try that. Go ahead.
- Jack Kevorkian
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There's no doubt I expect to die in prison.
- Jack Kevorkian
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All the big powers they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.
- Jack Kevorkian
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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
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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
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What are friends? Some people are nice. Some people aren't. There are some I'm fairly close with... we talk.
- Jack Kevorkian