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Ezekiel Emanuel Quotes

Powerful Ezekiel Emanuel for Daily Growth

About Ezekiel Emanuel

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a prominent American oncologist, bioethicist, and health policy expert, was born on February 21, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. He is the brother of Ari Emanuel, a powerful Hollywood agent, and Rahm Emanuel, a former White House Chief of Staff and Mayor of Chicago. Emanuel's academic journey began at Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in English Literature in 1979. He continued his studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before earning his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1986. His career in medicine and bioethics was further enriched by a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1993. Emanuel's professional life has been marked by significant contributions to healthcare policy, particularly in cancer care. He served as the Special Advisor for Health Policy to the Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama, and was a member of the Bioethics Advisory Committee during the Clinton Administration. His work on end-of-life care and the concept of "comprehensive care" has sparked extensive debate in medical circles. One of Emanuel's most influential works is his 2017 book, "Prescription for the Future: The Eleven Things We Must Do to Fix America's Healthcare." In it, he presents a comprehensive plan for reforming healthcare in the United States. Emanuel's thoughts on life and death have also garnered attention, particularly his controversial essay, "Why I Hope to Die at 75," published in The Atlantic in 2014. Ezekiel Emanuel continues to shape health policy discourse through his academic roles as the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and a professor of Health Care Management at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. His work remains relevant in discussions about healthcare reform, ethical decision-making, and end-of-life care.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The goal is not more life, but a good life."

This quote by Ezekiel Emanuel emphasizes that the pursuit should not solely be about increasing lifespan or living longer, but rather striving for a fulfilling, quality life. It encourages us to focus on improving our daily experiences, relationships, personal growth, and overall well-being rather than simply extending our years on Earth. In essence, it's a call to live purposefully and meaningfully, not just extensively.

"Health care reform must be comprehensive and ambitious."

This quote emphasizes the need for a holistic approach in healthcare reform, implying that mere incremental changes may not suffice to address the complexities and challenges of modern healthcare systems. An ambitious and comprehensive overhaul is required to tackle issues such as accessibility, affordability, quality, and efficiency, while also improving overall health outcomes for a broader population. This approach would ideally encompass multiple aspects of healthcare, including preventive care, treatment, long-term care, mental health services, and more. The ultimate goal is to create a system that provides equitable access to high-quality care for all individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic status or geographical location.

"I am an optimist in the sense that I believe that humankind has amazing capacity for improvement."

This quote emphasizes Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's belief in the innate potential of humanity to progress and improve. He views humans as capable of great change and advancement, demonstrating an optimistic outlook on human nature and our ability to evolve for the better. This optimism stems from his faith that people have the capacity to learn, adapt, innovate, and overcome challenges, ultimately leading to a brighter future.

"We should stop treating health as something we buy or sell, and start treating it as a social good."

This quote by Ezekiel Emanuel emphasizes a shift in perspective towards healthcare as a fundamental right rather than a commodity to be bought and sold. He suggests that healthcare should be treated as a collective social good, which benefits everyone in society equally. This viewpoint underscores the importance of universal access to quality healthcare services for all, prioritizing equity over profit. The underlying idea is that by treating healthcare as a societal responsibility, we can work towards improved overall health and well-being for all individuals.

"At some point, you have to decide whether you're going to be a lion or a lamb."

This quote by Ezekiel Emanuel underscores the importance of personal agency in shaping one's life and decisions. It suggests that each individual must choose between embracing courage, strength, and assertiveness (being a lion) or adopting a more passive, meek approach (being a lamb). The choice between these two paths can significantly influence how one navigates through life's challenges and opportunities. In essence, the quote encourages us to be bold in standing up for ourselves, taking responsibility for our lives, and striving towards our goals, rather than passively allowing circumstances to dictate our fate.

By establishing a social policy that keeps physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia illegal but recognizes exceptions, we would adopt the correct moral view: the onus of proving that everything had been tried and that the motivation and rationale were convincing would rest on those who wanted to end a life.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Been, Correct, Establishing, Proving

Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child's death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Death, Vaccines, Other, Disability

Anyone who lives in Washington and has an official position viscerally understands the cost of a lack of privacy. Every dinner - especially ones with a journalist in attendance - is preceded by the mandatory, 'This is off the record.' But everyone also knows, nothing is really 'off the record.'

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Privacy, Official, Mandatory

Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia have been profound ethical issues confronting doctors since the birth of Western medicine, more than 2,000 years ago.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

More, Been, Confronting, Doctors

Truth be told, for a 21st Century American Jew there is something hollow in the Seder's liberation story and the commandment to feel as if you were there.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

American, Feel, Hollow, Liberation

Vaccines are the most cost-effective health care interventions there are. A dollar spent on a childhood vaccination not only helps save a life, but greatly reduces spending on future healthcare.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Childhood, Vaccines, Spent, Helps

The assumption should be that we will not appear in print or the blogosphere. Having dinner should not be fodder for Facebook. And this is just as true for 'public personalities' as it is for the average person. After all, even people in the public eye have a right to a private life.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Life, Average, Private, Public Eye

The president recognizes that funding global health is good for national security, domestic health and global diplomacy. Consequently, President Obama has steadily increased funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which was created by President Bush and has strong bipartisan support.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Strong, Increased, Bush, National Security

We don't have enough solid organs for transplantation; not enough kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs. When you get a liver and you have three people who need it, who should get it? We tried to come up with an ethically defensible answer. Because we have to choose.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Choose, Three, Tried, Ethically

Reasoning based on cost has been strenuously resisted; it violated the Hippocratic Oath, was associated with rationing, and derided as putting a price on life... Indeed, many physicians were willing to lie to get patients what they needed from insurance companies that were trying to hold down costs.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Insurance, Been, Putting, Rationing

Our dad hugged us and kissed us so much that some friends and relatives complained that he was going to turn us into sissies or homosexuals. But my dad didn't care. Let them raise their kids in a reserved and reticent way. He grew up in Israel, and his boys were going to be hugged and kissed by their father and know they were loved.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Some, Sissies, Dad, Relatives

Patients who are being kept alive by technology and want to end their lives already have a recognized constitutional right to stop any and all medical interventions, from respirators to antibiotics. They do not need physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Medical, Alive, Recognized, Antibiotics

It is terrible when an infant dies, but worse, most people think, when a three-year-old child dies, and worse still when an adolescent does.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Think, Still, Infant, Adolescent

My father always has been attractive because of his energy, warmth, charm, and talent for finding some connection with people from all cultures and walks of life. He rarely observed social formalities and niceties - something he has passed on to his boys.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Father, Some, Been, Observed

On any given day, my father wasn't likely to return from work before I was asleep for the night. I saw that a man's work was important, that he must pursue it tirelessly, and that it might require certain sacrifices, like being away from the warmth and comfort of home.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Work, Away, Before, Tirelessly

Having been an oncologist and having cared for scores, if not hundreds, of dying patients, when you don't have a treatment that can shrink the tumor and the patient will die, it's a very difficult conversation. It's emotionally draining.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Die, Very, Treatment, Tumor

There's nothing to be gained, and much to be lost, in trying to bend every child to match a one-size-fits-all notion of what it means to be a boy or girl of a specific age. Better to set a few parameters and then go with the flow. Call it 'jazz parenting.'

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Boy, Jazz, Notion, Flow

The situation around Terri Schiavo was a deeply held conflict over what to do if someone isn't going to return to consciousness or competence. Who will decide? Even there, where we had settled legal rules, we still had disagreement. We're torn about these things.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Torn, About, Held, Terri

We had a big controversy in the United States when there was a limited number of dialysis machines. In Seattle, they appointed what they called a 'God committee' to choose who should get it, and that committee was eventually abandoned. Society ended up paying the whole bill for dialysis instead of having people make those decisions.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Big, United, Had, Seattle

Americans tend to endorse the use of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia when the question is abstract and hypothetical.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Question, Use, Tend, Hypothetical

We're all on a continuous journey to try and fix our mistakes and flaws. And, believe me, I've got plenty of them.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Journey, Mistakes, Plenty, Flaws

Where I came from, just nodding and smiling when someone expressed views was the ultimate insult. If people weren't yelling about politics in our house then they were arguing about music, or movies, or food.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Politics, Arguing, Yelling, Expressed

I'm the son of a pediatrician, and I do believe that the most important resource we have is our kids. And I think the most important thing for America's future is to invest more in our children.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Think, The Most Important, Pediatrician

The death of a 20-year-old woman is intuitively worse than that of a 2-month-old girl, even though the baby has had less life. The 20-year-old has a much more developed personality than the infant, and has drawn upon the investment of others to begin as-yet-unfulfilled projects.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Death, Woman, Projects, Intuitively

Medical school education and post graduate education emphasize thoroughness.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Medical, Post, Thoroughness, Graduate

In the 1950s and 1960s, many parents were generally standoffish with their male children and acted as if they were raising a generation of would-be soldiers. I remember some of my friends' parents who would shake their children's hands at bedtime.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

I Remember, Some, Shake, Acted

My mother saw nothing inconsistent in her traditional desire to look after her husband and children and her radical politics. She began her civil rights work before most people had ever heard the word 'feminism,' and in those early years, she was focused on racial justice.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Politics, Husband, Before, Early Years

When my children were growing up, we began every family meal - which included breakfast and dinner every day - with a prayer. We are Jewish and so it was the prayer over bread, when we were having bread, or the catch-all prayer for everything when we weren't.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Growing, Every Day, Jewish, Included

For months, my parents had been trying to prepare me for the arrival of a real sibling. They had given me a doll to play with and encouraged me to take care of her. And when the baby, a little boy they named Rahm, finally arrived, they encouraged me to help take care of him, too.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Play, Prepare, Been, Sibling

I guess, as an Emanuel, I have a voice that carries.

- Ezekiel Emanuel

Voice, Guess, Carries

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