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Virtually every list of Prince Philip’s verbal gaffes ever written includes a quote about how he would like to be reincarnated as a deadly virus and fight against human overpopulation: In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation. In those reports — and on various lists of notable quotes — this statement is almost universally (and unhelpfully) attributed to an August 1988 report by the German Wire Service Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA). Snopes has not been able to identify the August 1988 report in which this statement was allegedly made. At the very least, however, it is possible that this quote is a paraphrase of something Prince Philip did actually write in the foreword to a 1986 book titled People As Animals, which reads, in part: Copies of this book are hard to come by, but contemporaneous reporting of the book during its release confirms the quote is real. In a June 9, 1988, review of the book in the Los Angeles Times, critic Roselle M. Lewis specifically highlighted the Prince's forward: Fleur Cowles was an author, artist, and socialite whose friends, according to the Los Angeles Times, included hundreds of the world's most glittering rich and famous. Her book People as Animals was a collection of answers by her famous friends to the question What would you choose to be if you could be reincarnated as an animal? A portion of the book's proceeds went to the World Wildlife Fund, an organization for which Prince Philip served as president from 1981 to 1996. As described in the Los Angeles Times: While we are unable to ascertain if the DPA quote commonly cited originated separately from the People as Animals quote, it is factual that Prince Philip once argued that he would like to be reincarnated as a deadly virus as revenge against humanity's overpopulation and destruction of nature. As such, the claim is True.
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