Terry Pratchett Says Documentary Has Not Changed His Support For The Right To Die
Sir Terry Pratchett has said witnessing a man being helped to die for a controversial BBC film has not affected his support for assisted suicide.
In Choosing to Die, the 63-year-old author – who has Alzheimer’s disease – went to Switzerland to see a British man with motor neurone disease dying.
Liz Carr, a disability campaigner, said it was pro-suicide propaganda and that she was surprised the BBC had made it.
The BBC said Monday’s film would help viewers make up “their own minds”.
The programme, showed Peter Smedley, a 71-year-old hotelier, travelling from his home in Guernsey to Switzerland and taking a lethal dose of barbiturates given to him by the Dignitas organisation.
Dignity of life
Sir Terry, who made the film to establish whether he would be able to die at a time and in a way he wanted, said seeing what Dignitas did had not changed his mind.
“I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer,” he told BBC’s Newsnight.
Asked about the sanctity of life, Sir Terry responded: “What about the dignity of life?” Lack of dignity would be enough for some people to kill themselves, he said.
He added that he believed the right to an assisted suicide should extend to anyone over the age of consent.
He also accused the government of “turning its back” on the issue of assisted suicide.
“I was ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland at some considerable cost,” he said.
The BBC denied the screening could lead to copycat suicides and said it would enable viewers to make up their own minds on the subject.
The documentary maker Charlie Russell said the decision to film Mr Smedley dying had been given a lot of thought.
“As a film maker I felt it was the truth and unfortunately we do all die,” he said. “It’s not very nice but that’s what happens to us all.”
Ms Carr said: “I and many other disabled older and terminally ill people, are quite fearful of what legalising assisted suicide would do and mean and those arguments aren’t being debated, teased out, the safeguards aren’t being looked at.
“Until we have a programme that does that, then I won’t be happy to move onto this wider debate.”
The Bishop of Exeter, the Right Reverend Michael Langrish, said: “I want to see much more emphasis put on supporting people in living, than assisting them in dying.”
He said: “The law still enshrines that sense of the intrinsic value of life. But the law ultimately is not there to constrain individual choice. It’s there to constrain third party action and complicity in another person’s death.
“That remains illegal. There may be ameliorating circumstances that can be taken into account. But the law remains clear and is there to protect the vulnerable.”
Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, went to court to protect her husband from prosecution if he accompanies her to Dignitas.
‘Quality of life’
She said in a debate after the programme: “Politicians haven’t kept up.
“Lawyers and judges have been the only people who have been prepared to defend my rights… and my right to life and the quality of my life is the most important thing to me.”
In the last 12 years 1,100 people from all over Europe have been “assisted to die” by Dignitas.
A spokeswoman for the pressure group Dignity in Dying said it was “deeply moving and at times difficult to watch”.
She said: “It clearly didn’t seek to hide the realities of assisted dying. In setting out one person’s views on assisted dying, it challenges all of us to think about this important issue head on and ask what choices we might want for ourselves and our loved ones at the end of life.”
She said the current legal situation in the UK meant “not only are people travelling abroad to die, but there are also those who are ending their lives at home, behind closed doors, or with the help of doctors and loved ones who are helping illegally.”
‘Propaganda’
Dignity in Dying is calling for an assisted dying law with “upfront safeguards”.
But Alistair Thompson, a spokesman for the Care Not Killing Alliance pressure group, said: “This is pro-assisted suicide propaganda loosely dressed up as a documentary.”
Campaigners claim it is the fifth programme on the subject produced by the BBC in three years presented by a pro-euthanasia campaigner or sympathiser.
Mr Thompson said: “The evidence is that the more you portray this, the more suicides you will have.
“The BBC is funded in a different way to other media and has a responsibility to give a balanced programme.”
The BBC denied it was biased on the issue and a spokeswoman said the documentary was “about one person’s experience, Terry’s journey exploring the issues and the experience he is going through”.
“It is giving people the chance to make their own minds up on the issue,” she added.
The documentary, Choosing to Die, and the debate on BBC’s Newsnight are both available to watch on BBC’s iPlayer.
Same Difference 
Whether you’re severely/ chronically or terminally ill or not:
If you’re desolately miserable/ unhappy/ depressed; in excruciating physical and/ or mental pain,
and just want to die – for alot of people it is IMPOSSIBLE to live a happy and fulfilling life.
No matter how much time you give it, to adjust to adverse situations.
No matter how much love, support and money you may, or may not have.
No matter how many people love and will miss you – as much as you will always love and miss them.
It will be very hard to say goodbye.
But if it’s even harder for that someone very sick to continue living,
the dignity and peace of mind that legislated Certified Assisted Death would give, in mine and my Mum’s opinion is likely to prolong life – in many cases – WAY beyond the natural point where they would HAD to have been well enough to go to Switzerland – or to administer lethal drugs to themselves at home, in order for their family not to be prosecuted.
They would not be racing against time, exacerbating their illness getting organised, saving money and getting loved-ones together – in order to be well enough within their illness, for a trip to Switzerland.
They would be able to CHOOSE, a naturally right time for THEM to die, peacefully at home.
Having the RIGHT TO CHOOSE a Certified Assisted Death would give them precious time;
to gather friends and enjoy family time, get affairs in order, argue over who wants to be there with them when they want to finally depart this mortal coil.
They do not have that time, if their loved one has to be well enough to go to Switzerland.
Here in the UK there is no judgement/ law passed, whereby family can lawfully help you end your life.
We are stuck with the Switzerland option or breaking the law.
Yes, disabled and sick people who triumph against adversity and all the odds should be celebrated, and drawn reference to. I hope to be one of those inspirational disabled people one day – there’s alot of fight left in me yet!! We should not forget the value attached to what is being fought for here though;
by many people who are sick AND many people who are AT PRESENT in good health.
The RIGHT TO CHOOSE – for very ill people to decide; When and Where THEY end THEIR LIFE.
I would very much like to have the choice.
I fully expect I would, of course, be exhaustively counselled, assessed, judged and certified.
If I were to be in a condition where I could not take any more and just wanted out.
Stringent procedural controls should be in place to protect and defend the vulnerable, to prevent situations where the very sick, disabled, elderly or infirm may feel pressured or co-erced into doing away with themselves – or being assisted. This should never become opportunity for people to “cut the sandbags”.
A case where legislated process and certification has not been observed should be treated as is now;
on its own merit according to the circumstances – for a Judge to rule on and pass sentence.
This is why we need broadly balanced and involved debate; why we need blogs and forums –
we all have differing opinions and this is mine.
We need a referendum.
We need the establishment to be brave enough to stringently and compassionately legislate.
It’s my human right to choose and the law should reflect that.
Whether or not I believe God could forgive my suicide – assisted or not – I believe it’s the right of all religious AND non-religious human beings to choose – IT’S YOUR LIFE!
How you fare with your maker therafter is a personal thing and irrelevant to how the law is criminalising family who assist sick people who are desperate and suffering.
People expressing a constant desire to be expired.
God left us with free will when he cast us from Eden.
That was the whole point of forbidding the apple!
Situations will arise where people who can be helped will get help, will flourish and survive their illness to its natural end. Others will eventually go down a much deliberated, dignified and timely path to Certified Assisted Death – with the law firmly in place allowing the people left behind to get on with grieving.
We are allowed to attach DNR to our medical records – Do Not Resuscitate.
Why can we not have the right to attach something like Certificated Assisted Death?
We won’t have more suicides the more we look at this issue.
We will have less illegally assisted suicides and better, more adequate ways of carrying out people’s wishes.
Someone permitted an assisted suicide is more likely to prolong passing away for longer, on account of not having to rush away from the law and the comfort of their own home – able to bear more pain as a consequence of being spiritually at peace – secure in the knowledge that they are in control, to the end.
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