Today has been a little strange re assisted
death.
Last night the BBC showed Sir Terry
Pratchett’s documentary about assisted death, which included him being present
at the death of one man (Peter) at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, and having a
final conversation with another who chose to end his life there.
However, today’s first couple of hours for
me included listening to Radio 4’s Today programme
and a debate between a woman with cancer, Christine Jackson, and The Right Reverend
Michael Nazir-Ali, ex-Bishop of Rochester. This included the pious Nazir-Ali
patronizingly telling Ms Jackson that she shouldn’t worry about her death, as
medicine means she can feel no pain at the end – one of many answers to a question
other than that he was asked that he gave. The Right Reverend managed to ignore
the debate about the individual to reflect observations about family –
including a bold statement that the impact of an assisted death has a greater
impact on those left behind than any other death might, with no evidence to
support this ludicrous claim – then, when the discussion was about family took
it to a bland, Christian version of society, and his perceived negative impact
of assisted death upon its construct. And the Right Reverend’s snidey dismissal
of Pratchett’s emotional acknowledgement of Peter being a “brave man” (by
comparing his bravery with that of Iraq veterans) was, frankly, beneath a
so-called man of the cloth.
Alongside his patronizing of Ms Jackson,
which ignored her concerns about the quality of her life, as she experiences it
(rather than others might, niaively, observe it), Nazir-Ali also criticised the
BBC for not taking the opportunity to present a “balanced programme” on
assisted death. Basically, he castigated them for the programme not being a
different one: it did not fully present the views of family members; it did not
present the “other side” of the argument – as if all BBC programmes should be
similarly balanced.
I look forward to Songs of Praise coming from a Satanist coven next weekend.
This evening I watched the programme Sir
Terry had made, and it was profound.
I come at this as someone who is not a
stranger to death, nor to others’ thoughts and desires for control over the end
of their life:
- I remember my maternal grandfather dying
of “complications” following abdominal surgery – to this day I believe that,
had he been 20 years younger, there would have been a very different approach
to the pain he articulated as he died a horrible death from internal bleeding
following a botched operation;
- I remember my maternal grandmother dying
with acute Alzheimer’s disease (the same disease Pratchett has) that left her
unable to recognise her only daughter and in a daily state of panic and fear
about a world she did not understand;
- I remember my father living and breathing
artificially whilst waiting for me to make a 24-hour journey from deep in
Eastern Europe to say my goodbye. And, 30 minutes after I arrived, him pulling
at the oxygen mask that had kept him alive for the previous 12 hours saying,
“I’m ready”, then having the mask replaced by hospital staff. And I remember me
helping him remove it in response to his gestured request, and keeping it from
his airways as he once again implored to have the mask taken from his face.
Then he died;
- And I have experienced someone collapsing
on me, having total renal failure and – literally – dying in my arms; a virtual
stranger with whom I shared his last living breath.
I have known over 20 friends and
acquaintances who have died.
And I have friends with terminal illnesses,
and with severe disability for whom a good day is a day when the physical pain
is manageable enough to be able to forget about it long enough to read a few
pages of a book.
For me, the crux of the programme was about
the need for a legal, moral, safe way for an individual to be helped end her or
his life at a time of their own choosing if, in their opinion, their life was
no longer worth living. A framework for well-managed assisted death, so as to
avoid a much worse death in the future.
Dignity in Dying has long campaigned for a
change in the law, and I support that change. Theirs is for a careful legal development
to enable someone terminally ill (yes, there are clear ways in which to determine
such a diagnosis) and of sound mind to decide to have their life ended with
professional assistance. I fully support such a change in the law, and, seeing
Pratchett’s programme, feel all the stronger in this conviction.
Let’s be clear – such a law may have helped
Peter, given his condition. It would not have helped Andrew and, whilst I feel
personally conflicted about that, I nevertheless recognise the need for the
safeguards that a law focused on the terminal ill would give.
It is an outrage that I could, if I needed
to, have a vet come and administer drugs that would kill one of my cats if she
or he was terminally ill and in suffering. I would be able to feed them their
favourite fish or treats one last time and hold them how they like to be held
as they breathed their last, knowing they had a less painful death than they
would otherwise have had. And yet, my friend with an eventually life-taking
disease, or another friend with incremental disability can currently be
afforded no such professionally supported and dignified death in the UK.
If you have not seen Terry Pratchett: Choosing to die, I urge you to take whatever
fortification you need and watch. At the end, I hope you would – through your
tears - choose to join Dignity in Dying (http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/)
and support their campaign for a change in the law in the UK.
