Tonight, Sir Terry Pratchett, famous author, will speak on the BBC and call for assisted suicide to be legalised. Sir Terry's impassioned plea will come as he delivers the Richard Dimbleby lecture on BBC1, extracts of which have been released in advance.
The fantasy novelist who has Alzheimer's, will call for a tribunal to be set up where people can apply for legal permission to end their lives at a time of their choosing. His proposed tribunal would ensure 'they are of sound and informed mind, firm in their purpose, suffering from a life-threatening and incurable disease and are not under the influence of a third party'. It sounds so simple but it's ever so complex.
Families have eaten into their meagre life savings, taking their relatives to Dignitas in Switzerland because they know that here in Australia, they would face a gaol sentence. And I can understand why. A greedy relative waiting for their inheritance might just slip grandad a few pills or an injection to send him on his way.
Then there's the moral issue of accepting your lot in stoic silence. What makes me so special that I can arrange a pain-free death when others are showing courage, suffering in silence and dying in agony. And of course there is religion and what we have learnt about suicide from the church.
I think the time has come for this difficult subject to be brought out into the open, looked at from all angles and dealt with. Death is one subject we all have in common.
What a great resource!
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