Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's, and is becoming an assisted suicide advocate.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/books/coming-to-terms-with-the-final-chapter/2010/02/11/1265477648911.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

by timr • 16 years ago

35 25 16 years ago

smh.com.au

philk• 16 years ago

It's good that Terry Pratchett is advocating for this (although it would be much better if he was healthy).

This article reminded me of an Op-Ed he wrote in the Guardian last year, which I posted as another article (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1128224)

jimmyjim• 16 years ago

There was a healthy discussion on this issue just two days ago on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/b1n8h/i_remember...

camccann• 16 years ago

Tch, show proper respect. That's "Sir Terry" to the likes of us.

And I don't think "becoming an advocate" is perhaps worded strongly enough. A few choice quotes from something he previously wrote on the subject (the link in philk's comment):

"I live in hope - hope that before the disease in my brain finally wipes it clean, I can jump before I am pushed"

"I am enjoying my life to the full, and hope to continue for quite some time. But I also intend, before the endgame looms, to die sitting in a chair in my own garden with a glass of brandy in my hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod - the latter because Thomas's music could lift even an atheist a little bit closer to Heaven - and perhaps a second brandy if there is time.

Oh, and since this is England I had better add: 'If wet, in the library.'"

"I have met Alzheimer's sufferers who are hoping that another illness takes them away first. Little old ladies confide in me, saying: 'I've been saving up my pills for the end, dear.'"

As terrible as death is, interminable, futile suffering with no hope of respite until the bitter end isn't necessary and isn't what most people want.

Groxx2• 16 years ago

Much less to inflict that and the costs associated with it on the ones they love.

I've always sided for the ability to choose in this because I really do think there are things worse than death, especially when you're assured there's no recovery before the end.

dbz• 16 years ago

I'm (also) pro everything. Pro Choice. Pro Abortion. Pro choose your own death. Pro Gay Marriage. Why?

I don't give a fuck what anyone else does.

If I have to, I will die while living off of a tube because my religion doesn't allow me to commit suicide. I also won't tattoo myself for the same reason. (I do choose not to follow some laws, yet I follow others)

Just because I personally believe anyone who commits suicide is going to hell (Note: I don't actually believe that previous statement), doesn't mean I'm going to stop him or her. Not my place.

oz• 16 years ago

He's so right about Tallis...I'm an atheist, and the Tallis Scholars' rendition of Allegri's 'Miserere' is simply breathtaking. I made sure it was played at my father's funeral last year September. He was a Christian minister.

My father died of a sudden heart attack, a day after his birthday and two days after mine. We had never talked that much about death, but I remember he once said that he wasn't interested in living to any ripe old age.

I'm glad I didn't have to watch him suffer.

I've been thinking a lot about euthanasia lately. And my position is that if I were ever in a position where I couldn't take care of myself, and saw no hope that my condition would change, I would want to die.

I don't remember his name but a year or two ago, a famous British composer and his wife decided to on Euthanasia after one of them was diagnosed with a terminal illness. They died together, holding hands I think, with their favourite music playing. There's something noble about this that appeals to me.

If I get to choose, I'd like to die to the strains of Barber's 'Adagio for Strings'

tome• 16 years ago

A side remark because I'm a bit confused by what you wrote:

What has Thomas Tallis got to do with the Tallis Scholars' rendition of Allegri's 'Miserere'?

simonjoe• 16 years ago

Actually, alzheimer's can't be diagnosed premortem. It's only diagnosed by characteristic neural striations during a necropsy. Before death, the only conclusion that one can draw (along those lines) is some kind of dementia, not the particular kind. (citation: Dr. Corballis, GT PSYC 3020 - Biopsychology)

epochwolf• 16 years ago

I have to agree with him to some degree.

Modern medicine allows us to extend life far beyond circumstances that would normally kill us. If someone is old, unhealthy, and no longer wishes to live they should be able to choose to end their life. The medical resources that would be used to keep them alive could be devoted elsewhere.

I certainly don't advocation allowing a healthy person to end their life because they have a chance at things getting better.

koningrobot• 16 years ago

I certainly don't advocation allowing a healthy person to end their life because they have a chance at things getting better.

This is gambling with other people's lives. If such a healthy person is forced to stay alive, things might never actually get better, and they will have suffered needlessly by staying alive. (And if things do get better, that is merely relief from suffering.)

On the other hand, if such a healthy person is allowed to end their life, that's all there is to it. They'll never regret it.

Besides, if you deny people professional help with ending their lives, they will try to get the job done themselves, often with bad results.

plinkplonk• 16 years ago

So from what I read (thanks ot this submission) about terminally ill people killing themselves the consensus for people to kill themselves would be some kind of morphine/opiate overdose. Sounds like a decent way to go.

I always thought I should get a gun (Possession of firearms is largely illegal where I live so this would involve some shady dealings and a lot of money) if I am ever diagnosed with something painful and/or terminal.

As a programmer who is used to working with his mind I am horrified at the thought of staying physically alive but slowly losing my mind. Getting enough morphine to overdose should be easier than buying a gun from a criminal. Damned if I'll stay alive in constant pain just so some religious nuts can feel elevated.

andrew12• 16 years ago

I think a preferred option for many people in this situation would be to go to an assisted suicide clinic like Dignitas in Switzerland where you can choose to die at a time of your choosing, without pain, surrounded by your loved ones, with the 'operation' performed by a medical professional. A problem with trying to kill yourself is the risk of getting it wrong - shooting yourself in the head but not managing to kill yourself, not taking enough of your drug of choice - and leading to a possibly lengthy agonising death, or permanent coma etc.

The problem people in the UK have with going to somewhere like Dignitas is that the law around assisting someone with suicide is vague, so if someone's family goes with them to Dignitas, they risk arrest when returning to the UK. In practise I think prosecution has never happened, but people have certainly been arrested on returning to the country.

Personally I think assisted suicide should be legal (although not as something that can be a spur of the moment decision) so that people can choose to take their own life, without the risk of pain or error, and with the support of their families.

pyre2• 16 years ago

> I think prosecution has never happened, but people have certainly been arrested on returning to the country.

How would they know why you left/re-entered the country unless you told them? Do the UK authorities track anyone the enters/exits a Dignitas facility?

holygoat• 16 years ago

Don't use a gun. Human beings are really hard to kill, and messing up a gunshot suicide is reportedly very easy. You're liable to end up with a big chunk of cheek or jaw missing, but not dead. Unpleasant.

Someone also has to clean up your mess...

electromagnetic3• 16 years ago

Biologically speaking it is very hard to kill a human, at least to kill yourself.

Through the mouth the bullet is likely to bounce off the hard palette, any further back and it's exiting the back of your neck and unless you get really lucky and hit the right bit of your spinal cord to stop your heart and lungs, you'll be in extreme pain.

Gun against forehead, poor angle to hold the gun at and potential ricochet again. Holding at the temple is a good way for the bullet to penetrate, however the bullet isn't likely to cause catastrophic damage to the areas of the brain you want.

From what I've read the best place is actually above the rear of the ear (where the elf-ear spike would be). Most people get a pretty good angle, which means the bullet is likely to penetrate, also the bone isn't quite as thick as everywhere else and also if you're using hollow-points you've got a high chance you'll hit the centres of the brain you want to hit.

If you're going to end yourself by a gun, get a shotgun, use buckshot and build a rig so that you can get it to impact your skull from the rear. It guarantees virtually everything, you'd also be able to arrange it so that your family isn't the first to find you by calling the emergency services first. Also shotguns are typically legal in most countries with limited restrictions placed on their ownership.

However, if you're going this route you might as well go down to a street corner in a shady area and buy a huge wack of heroin and have an illegal opiate overdose. If you want to guarantee the end, ingest a large quantity of rat poison pellets (preferably encase them in gel capsules) before you shoot up and you'll be a gone long before you re-enter comprehension.

Suicide is a messy business, and it appears as though the human body is designed to be incapable of offing itself easily as the weak-parts on our skull (top and back) can only be self-hit using the elbow joints for force and not the stronger shoulder muscles. Although I've read that an aluminum baseball bat has a higher success rate than gunshot. However, it's hard to beat a rope and a fast stop for the most effective method of death (over 3-feet has a good chance of snapping the spine causing cessation of heart and lung function, so over 6-feet of drop would likely guarantee it with a sturdy rope).

dkersten• 16 years ago

I used to think that a shotgun shell to the brainstem was the quickest and most painless way to die - but then I saw a photo of someone who survived it somehow and... well, theres some things that once seen, can't be unseen. Now I would never want to die through a firearm wound - the chances of surviving in a worse state than you were in before is what scares me.

danw• 16 years ago

Listen to his Richard Dimbleby Lecture to understand his viewpoint http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qmfgn. There are text versions and recordings floating around. Here's a shortened one: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchet...

pmccool• 16 years ago

Terry Pratchett writes movingly and convincingly that assisted suicide should be allowed. Coming up with some general rule about how and when will be the hard part.

I can't see any legal reforms in this area being anything except controversial and problematic. I fear it will be a long time before the legal system can accomodate the mature, considered decision to end one's own suffering.

I'm referring, btw, to the Australian legal system. From the sounds of it, the UK system is in more or less the same position.

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's, and is becoming an assisted suicide advocate.

Related Stories