Jack Kevorkian

"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 prolonguing and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease."

"This is a medical service. It always was."

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

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

"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."

"We need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington."

"When you transplant a heart from a baboon into a baby as we did, and you say the body of that baby is sacred, does that profane heart from the baboon become sacred when you place it in the body? Or when you take out a gallbladder and throw it in the garbage, is that a sacred gallbladder in the garbage? Or as soon as it's out of the body it loses its sanctity? You see the silliness of our mythology? Children ask the questions I'm just asking now. Trouble is, children get slapped for asking questions like that because they have no defense. But you can't slap me. I can ask the question. It's a logical question."

"Dying is not a crime."

"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."

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

"You're going to watch a person suffer in agony while somebody's debating?"

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

"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 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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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