In my opinion, I regard Terry Pratchett as a pseud. and he's no more
suffering from what he calls "a very rare form of Alzheimer's" than I
do. Some years ago when a new young CEO was appointed to the Dignity
in Dying organisation, one or two eminent members resigned (no reason
given). At about the same time Terry Pratchett was invited to be one
of only three Patrons. I wrote a strong (but very carefully composed)
letter, describing my dissatisfaction and suggesting that the
organization would lose political weight if it continued as it was. I
received a (carefully composed!) letter in reply without specific
comment (I wasn't expecting comment, of course). Within a few months,
however, more than a dozen new Patrons were invited on board. They
don't have quite the social, political or academic stature of the
original people who guided the organisation in its earliest years
(when it was known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) but,
nevertheless, it has been doing splendid work since, with the
particular help of Lord Joffe. It can only be a matter of a year or
two now when some sort of legislation will be passed.
Keith
At 08:08 28/08/2012, Mike Spencer wrote:
Arthur wrote:
> Against the documentary or against the idea of assisted suicide?
Not against either one. People should be able to check out if they're
unbearably miserable or facing an unbearable future. Of course,
numerous problems arise in practice for DIY suicide: Failure, failure
with permanent incapacitation, other people hurt directly or
indirectly in a rescue attempts, messy detritus, emotional problems for
friends & family etc. Assisted suicide has the salient problem of
determining in some convincing and defensible way that death is the
subject's uncoerced, compos mentis intention.
Not "against" Pratchett's documentary. He's making a serious attempt
to come to grips with the prospect of becoming demented, disabled or
both. In his monologues, his assistant is visibly distressed. They
arrange with a family to attend and film the assisted death (in
Switzerland) of a man who is facing a future he regarded as
intolerable. [1]
The video is just unsettling, distressing, depressing. An organized,
kindly, professional but rather bureaucratic system succeeds in making
some of the DIY problems go away. But not all of them.
- Mike
[1] More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett:_Choosing_to_Die
I don't know where you can get the video. My son has it on a DVD.
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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