Been busy today, working on a few things, and counting money (literally penny pinching… heh) trying to roll up all the loose change I’ve had lying around for a few years.
So, you still get a post – just a short one. Plus awesome linkage…
Related to yesterday, I ended up watching the documentary Choosing to Die last night, which features the prolific author Sir Terry Pratchett. Pratchett was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2007, and it is a particularly rare form which causes the rear of the brain to actually grow smaller. Initially he was taking this all in rather good form, but as his condition has gotten worse he has had to rely on his assistant to type out his books while he dictates. He can no longer type. And he is only going to get worse.
Sir Pratchett filmed this documentary in 2010, and it was released a few months ago, and in it he presents the idea of assisted dying. In most of Europe, people are in fact allowed to choose to die, rather than live with a debilitating illness. Sir Pratchett would like the option to make this choice for himself, for as he states in the film “When I can no longer dictate (write), I no longer wish to live.” However, assisted dying is still illegal in the UK, where he lives. It is also still illegal in the US.
More or less, it’s an extremely depressing documentary about people choosing to die in a dignified manner, rather than live in agony and/or die an undignified death in a hospital somewhere once their disease has run its course. And I think everyone should watch it. Because not only do you learn something, but you see what two men who have chosen to die go through on a day to day basis, and they explain why they have chosen this path. You also see Sir Pratchett discuss with them and their families why they made this decision, and why they think that the UK should join with the rest of Europe in allowing assisted dying.
If you have no other reason to watch it, watch it for the simple fact that Sir Terry Pratchett is a phenomenal writer, and a phenomenal human being, which he shows time and time again throughout this documentary.
My grandmother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s a while back as well…
Aberro Specus 