Despite vehement opposition through e-mails and protests prior to his UF appearance, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was met with applause and cheers as he discussed criminal-system reform and what he deemed the most important U.S. amendment at the O'Connell Center on Tuesday night.
The speech was postponed for half an hour because the audience of roughly 5,000 people took longer than expected to pack themselves into the venue.
Kevorkian couldn't discuss euthanasia in detail because it would violate his parole terms, he told the audience. His lawyer looked on as he spoke.
But Kevorkian did mention assisted suicide's frequent and accepted use in ancient Greece and Rome.
"I think they were way ahead than we are now," he said.
Today, the government - not the medical community - decides which health practices are acceptable, he said.
"You can't dictate medical procedures by law," Kevorkian said. "They change all the time."
He expressed his disapproval of the legal system, particularly punishment by imprisonment.
The United States needs a more humane legal system, he said.
He suggested a sanctuary system, in which a person accused of a crime is permitted to work out a deal with the victim and his family in private.
Imprisonment is a violent punishment, Kevorkian said, and "violence breeds counter-violence."
But he said the biggest problem with the law is its failure to follow the Ninth Amendment.
The amendment, authored by James Madison, the fourth American president, states that U.S. citizens have other rights not listed in the Constitution.
"All law can do is stop you from the right you have naturally," he said. "That amendment is the greatest power in the world."
Because the amendment is often ignored, society has become "tyrannized and sheep-like," Kevorkian added as he waved his fists in the air.
Not all of Kevorkian points were met with support. He evoked a mixture of applause and boos when he spoke out against the voting system.
"Everyone should refuse to vote," he said. "That'll send the tyrant a message."
Using the 2000 presidential election as an example, Kevorkian said presidents are not elected but, rather, appointed.
Black people are the only citizens in the United States with power, he said.
"They're acutely aware of their loss of rights," he said, using slavery as his prime example.
White people must learn to unite, Kevorkian added. When he was booed as he derided various aspects of the law, comparing the United States to Nazi Germany, Kevorkian echoed the sounds of booing into his microphone. At the end of his speech, the audience granted him a standing ovation.
During the question-and-answer session after his speech, Kevorkian said he helped kill about one out of every five patients who asked to die. The ones he turned away didn't show enough medical evidence to justify ending their lives, he said.
Katie Schweiss, an English senior and supporter of Kevorkian, said she was surprised at the speech.
"That was insane," Schweiss said, laughing. "It was not at all what I expected."
Kelly DeLucia, a UF business graduate student, said she's not a Kevorkian supporter, but she's not against his ideas either.
"It was interesting to try to understand his thought process and his belief system," DeLucia said.
