Jack Kevorkian
Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was an American pathologist, right-to-die activist, painter, composer, and instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime".
Beginning in 1999, Kevorkian served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition that he would not offer suicide advice to any other person.
As an oil painter and a jazz musician, Kevorkian marketed limited quantities of his visual and musical artwork to the public.
“Dying is not a crime.”
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.”
Jack Kevorkian
“This (...) had made me aware for the first time of the well-disguised myth that they and the academic institutions they represent are bastions of a free exchange of ideas. They are -but only of those ideas that don't 'rock the boat', that refrain from challenging hallowed taboos.”
Jack Kevorkian
“She made the decision that her existence had lost its meaning. And you cannot judge that.”
Jack Kevorkian
“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
“If a man is terrified, it's up to me to dispel that terror.”
Jack Kevorkian
“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
“When your conscience says law is immoral, don't follow it.”
Jack Kevorkian