Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s some time ago. It’s one of the only news stories since 9/11 to make my heart wail – which may well point to a callousness on my part, but also points to how formative his sense of humour, storytelling and philosophies have been for me. I’ve been reading his books since the 80s, and he has grown as an author, I’ve grown as a reader. His opinions on governance, Life, death, punishment, law, acceptance, religion, revolution and change as well as aging have all folded themselves into me. Hell, he even wrote about being a musician – and he gets it.
We appear to be on the same page with yet another issue: assisted suicide. Though I’m saddened that he hasn’t been able to attack this topic until he’s been thinking about it for himself, I’m glad to have an advocate of such well-turned phrase and intelligence. He writes (http://io9.com/5464798/terry-pratchett-argues-for-assisted-death) about the concept of adding an important piece of the puzzle – an assisted suicide tribunal.
We eventually made it out the door – but it was very, very hard going. We ran out of rulers that were long enough to measure stuff halfway through the day. Broom says we got THIS MUCH snow. Precisely THIS much.
As part of our big “health care reform” argument here in the US there was the discussion of end-of-Life counseling. People freaked out – some because they were too stupid to understand what was being discussed. Many people freaked out because people like Limbaugh and Hannity and half the Republicans in Congress poured spectacular lies on the fire – and lies burn gooooood. I haven’t heard anything about this for quite some time, but I’m assuming that’s because rather than having an intelligent discussion about the topic, we buried it to avoid any further controversy.
We found Kristen’s car! It seems like we’re ALWAYS searching for the damned thing. Every couple of weeks at least, as another snowstorm drops out of nowhere and slaps us around.
My father’s failed struggle with cancer wouldn’t have changed with any further counseling. He went into it intelligently, if not entirely logically and though we’re not happy with the outcome, he came to the end of his Life the way he wanted to: at home. But I imagine he’d have ended it sooner if he could’ve – many people around me have died after a long struggle, many have expressed that they just wanted to die. I hated having to deny my father water because it was the way he’d Live longest. All he wanted was water – but it would’ve hastened the dissolution of certain tissues and it would’ve been against doctors orders. We can deny care and we can try to make people comfortable, but actually hastening the process is illegal.
Also spent a lot of my snow day inside making some little 8-track recordings. Recorded some new stuff, recorded some old stuff. In general enjoyed the process and wasn’t completely pleased with the product. After we found the car, we had to come back in and squish some cats. Sometimes it’s the only thing that makes you feel better. I realize that this isn’t strictly appropriate given the rest of the content of the page, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
There’s a huge difference between this and the angsty suicides of teenaged, star-crossed Lovers. A vast difference between this and the deranged person who’s off their meds. An end-of-Life counseling session is very smart. It allows people to understand their choices, and in theory doesn’t weight any one choice or the other. In America it couldn’t counsel towards suicide but could counsel about Living wills, which in this age of technology and drugs is EXTREMELY important. We can keep our vegetable selves alive for decades, and though there are plenty of movies demonizing the choice of “pulling the plug”, there are plenty more medical tales of people never waking up again, never being functional, never being themselves again.
I know I’ve got tons of photographs of snow in Catonsville by now – but never anything like this Snow’s above the doorhandles on most of the cars, mounds of snow are taller than people. I have vague memories of something like this in the late 70s, but even that was probably exagerated through the eyes of my childhood. I remember having to tunnel from house to house and Loving the building of forts. The sun slowly went down on Snomageddon oh Ten. The sky had cleared, stunning sunset. Slow sunset – the second night of Snowmageddon oh 10.
Far from being the “Death Panels” of right-wing conservative propaganda, allowing people to know what their future holds, both the hopes and fears, allows them to choose their path. And some people will choose to Live, no matter the cost, no matter the consequences – and that’s their right – and end of Life counseling would allow them to make the smartest choices to that (prolonged non-) end – and beyond that, allow their family to know unequivocally and without guilt that that is what is wanted.
What Terry Pratchett suggests is above and beyond this, but kind of separate. It’s something we don’t have the legal capacity to allow for yet. This isn’t someone that you’d go to instead of the above end-of-Life counseling. This is something you’d perhaps go to after. After telling your counsel that you’d like the right to end your Life in certain circumstances – this assisted suicide tribunal would then be in the position of deciding that you’re sane enough to actually make that decision for yourself.
There are frankly plenty of situations in which you’re not in your right mind and shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions regarding the end of your Life – but I know already there are circumstances in which I wouldn’t want to go on Living. I’m not the person that you want to talk to when you’re Life really is that down in the dumps because I DO think there are worse things than death. Even though I was raised very strongly to believe that where there’s Life there’s hope – I’ve Lived enough by now to know that that’s not at all true, and that just because there’s a chance doesn’t mean that that chance is worthwhile.
I think there are a LOT of important causes out there – many deal with how we Live and a few deal with how we die. I’m often disappointed because it seems as if the biggest difference between the causes that see progress and the ones that don’t is the charisma and intelligence of their spokespeople. With Terry Pratchett putting out statements like this, I have high hopes that he can address some of the paranoid fears and downright ignorance that our bound to spring up around the topic.
And for those people who, tongue-in-cheek though it may be, say things like “please don’t, I can’t imagine my Life without the next Discworld novel to look forward to” – you might force your cat to Live forever, limping on three legs and foggy-eyed, but fortunately, Mr. Pratchett’s not your pet and can Live and die as he sees fit.
