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Cat, Photoblogger ([info]cat_mcdougall) wrote in [info]unfunny_fandom,
@ 2011-06-13 11:21:00


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Current mood:Flattened

Putting this here, because it's not funny, and he's a fandom all his own
Terry Pratchett starts proceedings to end his life

Three and a half years ago, Terry Pratchett, the beloved author of the Discworld series, announced that he has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Now he's made an even more startling announcement.

Pratchett, who has campaigned in his native United Kingdom for the right of assisted suicide, has begun the formal process of assisted suicide in Switzerland, one of the few countries in the world to legalize euthanasia. Specifically, this would take place at Dignitas, a clinic that provides qualified doctors and nurses to assist with the patients' suicides.

Dignitas has sent Pratchett the paperwork he needs to sign to begin the assisted suicide process—but he has yet to sign it.

According to The Guardian,

"The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish," he said during a question-and-answer session following a screening at the Sheffield documentary festival Doc/Fest.

He said that he decided to start the process after making the film Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die, which shows the moment of death of a motor neurone sufferer, millionaire hotel owner Peter Smedley.

Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die airs tonight in the United Kingdom, which means the end could be nigh for our literary hero. But the The Guardian wrote that "According to Dignitas, 70% of people who sign the forms do not go through with taking their own lives."

We wish Pratchett the best, no matter what his decision is.




Sir, whatever you choose, I hope it is as you choose and with the dignity you have shown in your life.



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[info]staroverthebay
2011-06-19 03:13 pm UTC (link)
I don't know why I'm shocked. The man is a class act himself, and doctor-assisted suicide is something I'm in favor of, especially after seeing my grandmother be put through agonizing test after agonizing test when all she wanted was pain medications and hydration to the end. I understand that doctors have an obligation to help the sick and dying, but at some point, you're prolonging the inevitable. At some point, modern medicine is the only thing keeping a person alive, when even the will has gone, and that goes beyond the Hippocratic Oath. What value is there to prolonged life if that life is spent in hospice without the will to even live at all?

TL;DR Sir Pratchett, I salute you. You are a class act and if this helps you to remain happy and worry-free for the remainder of your life (however long that might be) then I pray that your decision is worth all the scrutiny you will endure in the coming days/months/years.

When I have some spare money, I need to buy a couple more of his books.

(Reply to this)


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