“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Everyone is going to die.”

“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?”

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

“How can you regret helping a suffering patient?”

“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.”

“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 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.”

“I don't persuade to suicide.”

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

“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.”

“I have no regrets, none whatsoever.”

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

“I suppose, if helping a patient die is killing, I suppose I'm a killer.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.”

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

“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.”

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

“I'm not lying to myself like most people.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Let's hope you feel better now.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience.”

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

“Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“The law doesn't create a right.”

“The patient decides when it's best to go.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”