God's waiting room
Our national debate about the moral and legal status of assisted euthanasia continues. Last night, the author Sir Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer's, to make a case for the decriminalisation of assisted suicide, the establishment of suicide tribunals, and for himself as a test case. Money quote:
"I would also suggest that all those on the tribunal are over 45, by which time they may have acquired the rare gift of wisdom, because wisdom and compassion should, in this tribunal, stand side-by-side with the law. The tribunal would also have to be a check on those seeking death for reasons that reasonable people may consider trivial or transient distress. I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration. Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice."
Watch Sir Terry Pratchet's televised Richard Dimbleby Lecture.
and edited transcript of Sir Terry Pratchet's Richard Dimbleby Lecture.
Comment number 1.
At 2nd Feb 2010, Cjay wrote:Clear, unambigious and superbly delivered by Tony Robinson. Surely when this becomes the subject of a Dimbleby Lecture the subject should now be fully debated in parliament? In every part of life we are told to take resposnibility for ourselves and yet at the one moment this is the most important apparently somebody else must choose...why? Why should we have to suffer pain because someone else finds it a bit unpleasent to consider dying?
It only has to be assisted because we cant do it ourselves! Which is worse...watching someone die in pain over many months or helping someone fulfill thier expressed desire?
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Comment number 2.
At 2nd Feb 2010, SheffTim wrote:For every birth a death is owed.
We all know we're mortal, we can't put off the inevitable.
All of us would want a peaceful, painless end to our lives, preferably one that allows us some degree of dignity.
At the very least I hope my end is quick; it is not death I fear, but the dying.
For some, such as my father, the end was quite quick; a heart attack at home, unable to be resuscitated when medical aid arrived.
For others the end is a long, slow descent; often both physically and mentally.
My mother died of dementia in a care-home; her care was exemplary but she was unrecognisable as herself when younger; in her few lucid moments she could recognise what was happening to her and how it would end, her anguish was plain to comprehend.
We seek control over our lives; of that which satisfies our needs and wants, that gives us happiness and contentment.
If I find that one day I have a terminal, increasingly debilitating illness why should I not seek, and be allowed, some control over how and when my life ends?
If I were not in a position to act myself then I would like to be allowed to ask for help in how my end comes, as an act of love.
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Feb 2010, mccamleyc wrote:Smother Mother.
Why should comfort be dependent
on a pharmacy of pills
When one well-disposed descendent
and a pillow cure all ills?
(Brandsma Review)
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