It’s a somber and serious topic, especially for a man as funny as novelist Terry Pratchett. But it has to be talked about, and as the baby boomer generation declines, it’s coming up more and more, as author Martin Amis recently demonstrated.
The topic is that of assisted suicide, and the right to die under one’s own decision.
Terry Pratchett, age 61, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease two years ago. The disease can be rapid, unpredictable, frightening and debilitating, and is terminal. Now Pratchett, who has long made his living with words, is speaking out to bring attention to the topic of death with dignity. He sees no reason why in today’s day and age, people should be fated to slow and painful decline, and he made his argument eloquently during a lecture for the BBC in early February.
“‘The baby boomers see how their grandmothers and grandfathers died, and they’re looking after their mums and dads, and they think, ‘Bugger this, who said it has to be like this?”’
Pratchett was recently knighted, which delighted him no end, but made him a touch nervous:
”She is getting on a bit. I was glad I was the second one in the queue. She’s about as old as my mum, so you like her to be nice and fresh when she’s swishing a sword above your head.”’
Clearly, there’s a reason Pratchett is known for his funny bone. He’s most famous for his Discworld series of humour/fantasy novels, which includes 38 titles so far.
For Pratchett, and for countless ageing people across the globe facing uncertain fates out of their control, the right to die with dignity is an important argument, and one which is likely far from resolved. In the meantime, however, he’s still going strong.
“‘I’m writing a lot,” he says. ”I’m just signing up for two more books. I’m always writing. If they can put a pencil and a paper in my coffin, I’ll write there too.”
Read the whole article in the Sydney Morning Herald.