Sir Terry Pratchett "Shaking hands with death"

Panda

Just thought ye might want to have a look at this.
Maybe its because you're interested in the topic of assisted dying or because you're a fan of Terry Pratchett either way its well worth a watch.

Pratchett doesnt actually give the lecturem instead he drafted in Tony Robinson and he does so perfectly.

bbc news description:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8458971.stm

Heres the clips on youtube,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUE3pBIuAGk

Wibbs

Yes defo worth a look. Saw it the other night. A really well thought out speech on the subject.

Eliot Rosewater

The lecture discusses assisted death, Prachetts term for assisted suicide, which he feels has negative connotations. The first half of the video discusses his life and his contraction of Alzheimers disease while the latter half discusses assisted death.

The lecture is very human. Prachett clearly hates what is happening to his brain. He says that he should be able to die the way he wants t in a dignified manner. Specifically he painted up an image of him drinking drugged brandy on a chair in his garden. As I said, very human and very personal.

He deals with the main issues associated with the practice including vulnerable people being pushed into it, and people doing it for reasons that are, in retrospect, relativity silly. He proposed a tribunal that would decide cases.

As far as I know hes taking a test case to the courts as regards the issue.


Cheers for the vid OP, first time Ive ever watched more than 10 mins of Youtube in one sitting

Earthhorse

Very good. Not a Pratchett fan by any stretch of the imagination but it's a well thought out and well written argument, and one which I happen to agree with.