MUDr. Marie Svatošová

"I had a phone call in my medical office: 'State Security speaking, come tomorrow at eight o'clock to number seven.' But I really didn't understand what number seven, so I asked, 'Where, to Prague 7?'. So they explained that it was street Bartolomějská 7 [headquarters of State Security at that time, trans.]. I was supposed to be so educated to understand immediately, that ‘number seven’ meant street Bartolomějská 7. But I really hadn´t understood, so that´s why I asked where to in Prague 7. So they explained me that it was street Bartolomějská 7. I didn't even tell my husband, who wouldn't sleep because of worries, I told myself I would tell him when I got back. I told a few friends in case I didn't come back, so that my husband would know where to look for me. And [I told] also the deputy director of the health center, she was a decent doctor. I told her that I wasn´t going to start working in the surgery at eight o'clock because I had to go [to police]. The nurse was alone in our office, and she told me later that the deputy director called the office every hour during the morning to see if I was back already. It was clear that I might not come back, that it could be bad. It was an experience for me. It wasn´t pleasant at all when the big door slammed behind me, first, second, third door, and then a corridor. The interrogation lasted, approximately, three hours, but I had already been experienced then. Father Ladislav Kubíček taught me, a doctor and priest in one person,he had been my confessor and teacher for almost thirty years. He brought us to be truthful, a lie wasn´t accepted, and this paid off very well for me. I really turned for help to the Holy Spirit, I didn't have to lie and they didn't learn anything from me anyway. On the contrary, they learned a lesson, they heard what they didn´t like to hear, and didn´t get what they wanted to know."

"Of course, I do not agree with euthanasia, but I do not agree with suicide either. But I think the motive is important. In the case of Jan Palach, it wasn´t suicide committed of despair, but he approached it as a sacrifice. That's how I saw it. It's a loss of a young life, but his motive was fair, and I believe that's how the Lord will judge it. That he won't see it as throwing life at his feet, because life is a great gift, but that it was a sacrifice. Jesus also sacrificed himself on the cross, even though he could have got away with it. All he had to do was simply say, 'I am not the son of God.' He sacrificed his life, the motive is crucial."

"It really wasn't easy for me. I was aware that I didn´t deserve it, because hospices are not my work, they are not, I am really convinced of it, they are not human work, they are God's work. If it was human work, it would have failed long ago in those conditions. That´s firstly. And if I were to admit that someone deserves an award, it would have to be for everyone involved in the hospice, all the staff, the nurses, the doctors, the orderlies, everyone who serves there. So it was very hard for me to go to the Castle to get the award that belongs to everybody. I struggled a lot, I even went to Cardinal Vlk at the time and I thought he would support me, based on humility principle, but he said, 'No, you can't refuse it.' I know I told him even then that when I come to the heaven´s door it would be a burden, and he said, 'Don't worry, you'll leave it below. ' So in the end he said I couldn't refuse it, that it was very important for the idea of hospice, to promote it, to raise the awareness, and that I had to go through it. So I did. My brother was there with me, and he made it a little bit easier. Of course, meeting President Havel in person was a strong experience."

"Sure, the threat [of euthanasia] is there, I have no illusions that one day it won't be there. It depends on who we will elect next time, there are some parties all for it, all the Pirates are said to be for euthanasia, so if we elect the Pirates they can vote for it. It would be the same with an abortion law, if the law was here. It will depend on everybody´s moral sense, to decide whether to apply it or not. But I am glad that there is an alternative. I don't have to get killed because there is a hospice where they can manage my pain, shortness of breath, they will take care of me. I don't have to suffer from unbearable pain and I can live my whole life to its end."