Jack Kevorkian Quotes

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"We are all terminal."

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

"You can cite me for contempt, Your Honor. I don't care."

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

"My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience."

"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."

"The patient decides when it's best to go."

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

"The law is cruel."

"I don't persuade to suicide."

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

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

"This could never be a crime in any society which deems himself enlightened."

"Fear controls you."

"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."

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

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

"Let's hope you feel better now."

"I have no regrets, none whatsoever."

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