The Sisterhood Quotes

“that’s being awfully tough on yourself for just doing what you believed in and for trusting that other human beings were just as constant, just as pure in their belief as you were.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“lass”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“You must keep this in mind whenever you read such diagnoses as ‘cancer,’ or ‘emphysema,’ or ‘arteriosclerosis’ as the cause of a patient’s death. They may have been a cause leading to death, but as to the direct cause of death—that, my friends, remains a mystery in the vast majority of cases.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“nobody other than God himself knows what causes a person to die. Nobody. Rather what we can determine is the condition of each organ in a patient’s body at the time of his or her death. From this knowledge, we can deduce with some accuracy the reason for cessation of cardiac, cerebral, or pulmonary function—the only true causes of death.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“Soon both women were given other responsibilities, primarily in the area Dahlia referred to as “direct patient contact.” They were no longer bound to Sisterhood cases—euthanasia was not a concern; the new cases had proven more rewarding in every sense.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“Every few weeks Dahlia would transmit the name of a patient in the northeast who had been approved by The Sisterhood for euthanasia. Janet would arrange a meeting with the distraught family of the patient and offer a merciful death for their loved one in exchange for a substantial payment.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“For years she had lived on hatred—hatred toward physicians in general and one in particular. She had joined The Sisterhood to use the organization in order to put certain M.D.’s in their place. Where necessary, she had even manufactured data on patients to get the Regional Screening Committee’s approval and recommendations.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“on instructions of The Sisterhood of Life, I have, on October second, helped to end the hopeless pain and suffering of Mrs. Charlotte Thomas with an intravenous injection of morphine sulfate.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“The prolongation of unnecessary human suffering is to be despised and to be terminated wherever possible. The dignity of human life and human death are to be preserved at all costs. End of report.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“The emergency ward was in its usual state of mid-evening chaos. Two dozen patients in various stages of discomfort and anger at the hospital sat in the crowded waiting room.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“it’s quite all right to benefit from doing something you believe in. The goodness of any work isn’t diminished by the fact that you might, in some way, profit from”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“in cases like this Mrs. Thomas we get a … double benefit. We get to honor the wishes of the woman and her husband by reestablishing some dignity in her life, and at the same time we get to remind a person like Huttner that he’s not God.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood

“Charlotte Thomas had The Look, as David had come to label it. She had lost the will to live, lost that extra bit of energy essential to surviving a life-threatening illness. The spark that was often the single difference between a medical miracle and a mortality statistic was gone.”
― Michael Palmer, The Sisterhood