It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it to be devoured by worms.

~ Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Barnard Better Choice Decision Organ Donors Science Transplant

For a dying man it is not a difficult decision [to agree to become the world's first heart transplant] ... because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side. But you would not accept such odds if there were no lion.

~ Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Barnard Decision Dying Life Odds Science World S First Heart Transplant

Suffering isn't ennobling, recovery is.

~ Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Barnard Suffering Recovery

I don't believe medical discoveries are doing much to advance human life. As fast as we create ways to extend it we are inventing ways to shorten it.

~ Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Barnard Life Believe Doing