Death Panel

1 February 2010



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Sir Terry Pratchett Wants to be Test Case for Suicide Law

The author of the Discworld books and much more, Sir Terry Pratchett, has early stage Alzheimer's Disease. Later today, he will deliver the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, and in it, he will call for the legalization of assisted suicide. He will offer to be the guinea pig for an assisted suicide tribunal -- a death panel to borrow a term from Sarah "Quitter" Palin. Sir Terry believes that quality of life matters more than longevity. He's quite right.

Of course, there is a case for leaving the law as it is, namely, helping someone kill himself is a crime. Baroness Campbell of Surbiton put the case for the law succinctly, "Once you open the door a crack, you're beginning to sanction or say to a culture, yes in some circumstances it is right to mercy kill disabled or terminally ill people." From there, it is a short journey to eugenics and Auschwitz.

However, in a culture that believes in human rights, the dignity of the individual, what right is more fundamental than the right to leave this vale of tears? Sir Terry is facing a rather unpleasant death, and everyone knows it. His mind will go, and there is no treatment. A man who has put food on the table and the title "Sir" in front of his name with the workings of his brain will slowly but inevitably be betrayed by that marvelous organ.

Sir Terry said, "I think it would be rather better if a person wishes to die, they could go see the tribunal with friends and relatives and present their case - at least if it happens, it happens with, as it were, authority." In other words, one would have to ask permission to die, and one would obviously have to be sane and in a condition where the quality of life was eroding.

Sir Terry gets the last words, "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 . . . . It's that much heralded thing, the quality of life that is important. How you live your life, what you get out of it, what you put into it and what you leave behind after it. We should aim for a good and rich life well lived, and at the end of it, in the comfort of our own home, in the company of those who love us, have a death worth dying for."

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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