First, do no harm
OK, I’m not belittling Terry Pratchett, but many people have incurable conditions that end up killing them and it often takes a lot longer than his particular brand of Alzheimer’s.
Sir Terry would like to be able to petition for assisted death. I think that is an awful thing to ask someone else to do for you; even to be asked make the decision about someone else. Sir Terry is currently healthy enough to commit suicide: like almost everyone else on the planet though, he would like to delay dying as long as possible. In fact, so long, that he needs someone else to do the job for him.
I don’t think that is a reasonable thing to ask. It’s different for someone who has been hit by a car or been involved in an accident where one second they are fine and the next not. Indeed, motor neuron disease is such that you get some warning.
Last year, I was involved in a car accident caused directly by the incurable condition I have. I was exceptionally lucky in that no-one was hurt apart from me and I only got bruising. But I could have been left with someone’s death on my conscience and that hit me very hard.
There were moments in the following 48 hours I really couldn’t cope: distraught is possibly the best word for it. Something I had guarded against for such a long time had happened.
The thing that kept me vaguely together was my family. It took a lot to get back behind the wheel of a car and I’m still not confident, even though the policeman who dealt with the accident supported me and encouraged me to drive again.
Knowing what I went through, at the possibility of having end another’s life, I do not think I could ask someone to help me die.
One of the things soldiers are trained to do is kill but it has a cost. The subject is discussed in length by various detective novels: taking a life changes you forever.
No-one is asking Sir Terry Pratchett to not enjoy his life, so how can he ask another to take his away from him?
Posted: February 6th, 2010 under 42.