Terry Pratchett: I'll die before the endgame!

[LongTomH]

Sir Terence Pratchett gave an interview on the subject of assisted suicide to the Sunday Mail newspaper in the UK. He stated that he wants someone to "point him to heaven before the final chapter comes."

"As a young journalist I once listened in awe as a 90-year-old former nurse told me how she helped a dying cancer patient into the great beyond with the help of a pillow."

"In the absence of any better medication in that time and place, and with his wife in hysterics at the pain he was forced to endure, death was going to be a friend; it was life, life gone wild, that was killing him."

"'We called it "pointing them to Heaven",' she told me".

"Decades later, I mentioned this to another, younger nurse, who gave me a blank look, and then said: 'We used to call it "showing them the way".'"

"Then she walked off quickly, aware that she had left a hostage to fortune."

<snip>

"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.'"

"Who could say that is bad? Where is the evil here?"

Polls show at least three-quarters of people in the UK agree with the sentiment that fatally ill people should be allowed to choose how the will die, and I think a majority on DU would agree. Actually, I've found quite a few devoutly Christian people who stated that terminal patients should be allowed to end their lives. One was a former hospital worker who told a horror story about healthcare workers 'shocking' a terminal patient's heart to keep him alive past midnight, so the hospital could charge the insurance company for one more day.

One concern that's been raised about assisted suicide in the U.S. is that economic considerations would play a role in a patient's desire to end his or her life. I think that's a valid concern, especially since social services for the elderly and sick are being cut to the bone or eliminated in places like California.

[TheMadMonk]

1. End of life pain and suffering even today is a good way to secure...

...a deathbed confession and bequest. Pain, suffering, death, grief, helplessness, guilt, all very strong motivators and all too often the priest right there in the thick of it with the "One True Answer".

[Hekate]

2. I read that interview a year ago. He's a very deep man and I hope he gets his wish when he wants it

To Sir Terry, creator of the Discworld! :toast:

Hekate

[Dr Morbius]

3. Hear hear!

A toast to my favorite writer!

[Hekate]

4. Mine, too.