Suicide when Terminally Ill
The wonderful British author Sir Terry Pratchett wrote an article for the UK Daily Mail today regarding assisted suicides. If you aren’t familiar with Terry Pratchett, you really haven’t been reading enough books. There is no need for you to read any further. Really.
When I was diagnosed with incurable leukemia I began a really fantastic journey. At first I cried a lot and was very melancholy. But this didn’t last long. Soon I figured out how wonderful life was, how easy it was to extinguish, and that what I needed to do was get my ass in gear and enjoy the time I had left to the fullest.
Of course everyone is terminally ill. But very few people face up to it. I have the luxury of knowing approximately how much longer I have left. Here are a few quotes from this wonderful article:
“I intend, before the endgame looms, the die sitting in a chair in my own garden with a glass of brandy in my hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod.”
After many years of drinking a bit too much, since being diagnosed with Leukemia I have quit drinking entirely. I prefer it this way. But I did order a two CD set of Thomas Tallis music from Amazon today.
I want to “jump before I am pushed and drag my evil Nemesis to its doom, like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty locked in combat as they go over the waterfall. In any case, such thinking bestows a wonderful feeling of power; the enemy might win but it won’t triumph.”
“Those brave souls lately seeking death abroad seem to me, on the other hand, to be gifted with a furious sanity. They have seen their future, and they don’t want to be part of it.”
“Naturally, I turn my attention to the future. There used to be a term known as ‘mercy killing.’ I cannot believe it ever had any force in law but it did, and still does, persist in the public consciousness, and in general the public consciousness gets it right.”
“I am enjoying my life to the full, and hope to continue for quite some time. But I also intend, before the endgame looms, to” take matters into my own hands.
“What they are doing, in fact, is buying themselves a feeling of control.”
Terminally ill people “don’t dread death; it’s what happens beforehand that worries them.”
“I believe that if the burden gets too great, those who wish to should be allowed to be shown the door.”
