Extreme Measures (1996)

Diana Zimmer: Helen

Quotes 

• Dr. Lawrence Myrick : I'm 68 years old, I don't have much time. Three years with a rat to get to a dog, and after five years - if I'm lucky - maybe I can work on a chimp? We have to move faster than that. I'm doing medicine here no one's ever DREAMED of! This is baseline neuro-chemistry, Guy!

  Dr. Guy Luthan : You're killing people.

  Dr. Lawrence Myrick : [Shrugs]  People die every day. For what? For nothing. Plane crash, train wreck? Bosnia - pick your tragedy. Sniper in a restaurant, fifteen dead, story at eleven. What do we do? What do you do? You change the channel, you move on to the next patient. You take care of the ones you think you can save. Good doctors do the correct thing - GREAT doctors have the guts to do the right thing. Your father had those guts. So do you. Two patients on either side of the room - one a gold-plated cop, the other a maniac that pulled a gun on a city bus. Who do you work on first? You knew, Guy. You knew. If you could cure cancer by killing one person, wouldn't you have to do that? Wouldn't that be the brave thing to do? One person and cancer's gone tomorrow. You thought you were paralyzed. What would you have done to be able to walk again? Anything. You said it yourself. Anything. You were like that for... twenty four hours.

  [Puts his hands on Helen's shoulders] 

  Dr. Lawrence Myrick : Helen hasn't walked for twelve years. I can cure her... and everyone like her. The door's open. You can go out there and... put a stop to everything and it'll all be over. Or we can go upstairs and change medicine forever. It's your call, Guy.

  Helen : [after a nervous pause]  ... Guy?

  Dr. Guy Luthan : ...maybe you're right. Those men upstairs, maybe... there isn't much point to their lives. Maybe they are doing a great thing for the world. Maybe they are heroes.

  [Helen and Dr. Myrick look relieved] 

  Dr. Guy Luthan : But they didn't choose to be. You chose for them. You didn't choose your wife... or your granddaughter... you didn't ask for volunteers. You chose for them, and you can't do that. Because you're a doctor. Because you took an oath. And you're not God. So I don't care, I don't care if you can do what you say you can. I don't care if you can find a cure for every disease on this planet! You tortured and murdered those men upstairs. And that makes you a disgrace to your profession. And I hope you go to jail for the rest of your life.

  [Helen begins to cry] 

  Dr. Guy Luthan : ... I'm sorry.