Jack Kevorkian

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

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.

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.

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'm not radical.

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

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

The Supreme Court of the United States... has validated the Nazi method of execution in... concentration camps, starving them to death.

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

I don't crave publicity, you know.

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

We are all terminal.

I'm not a romantic.

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

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

I don't persuade to suicide.

Many support what I am doing.

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

How can you regret helping a suffering patient?

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.

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

The patient decides when it's best to go.

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

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.

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.

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.

The law is cruel.

Fear controls you.

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

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.

My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.

Liberty means more to me than life itself.

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

The law doesn't create a right.

I have no regrets, none whatsoever.

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

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

I am not a sentimental person.

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

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

Let's hope you feel better now.

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.

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