Terry Pratchett begins formal process to end his life

Blastr ^ | June 13, 2011 | Carol Pinchefsky

[Abin Sur]

Three and a half years ago, Terry Pratchett, the beloved author of the Discworld series, announced that he has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Now he's made an even more startling announcement.

Pratchett, who has campaigned in his native United Kingdom for the right of assisted suicide, has begun the formal process of assisted suicide in Switzerland, one of the few countries in the world to legalize euthanasia. Specifically, this would take place at Dignitas, a clinic that provides qualified doctors and nurses to assist with the patients' suicides.

Dignitas has sent Pratchett the paperwork he needs to sign to begin the assisted suicide process—but he has yet to sign it.

[Darksheare]

They forget that if rights come from man, then they can be taken away because in the end there are no rights.

[DJ MacWoW]

Not really a threat. Truth isn't a threat. It's simply teh truth.

If you have no soul than what are "you"? The body is merely a house. What's it like to be empty?

[rollo tomasi]

"Didn't Thompson blow his brains out with his wife and daughter in the next room?"

Something like that. Unless Thompson asked someone to pull the trigger for him, he had "Balls of Steel" in pulling his own wet work. That is how suicide should be portrayed, an ugly selfish mess and not the work of medical professionals.

If a suicide industry does come into being, the service should be provided by the schematics of engineers who develop techniques and devices that you see in the 'Saw' movies. Now putting yourself in those situations would be displaying the ultimate "Balls of Steel".

[wagglebee]

I'm not a Christian, and the movie is about watching a man be tortured to death. I understand that Christians find this inspirational because it's Jesus Christ (whom they believe to be God incarnate) taking the sins of mankind upon himself, but please understand that to someone who doesn't believe that it just appears grotesque.

Then let me be a little more clear, FReepers generally don't take kindly to those who promote a leftist worldview (e.g. the complete rejection of Judeo-Christian teachings).

It's also pro-God, but I haven't had any problem posting about being an atheist.

Trolls often don't recognize the problems until it's too late.

I would describe myself as conservative in most areas, but leaning Libertarian on some issues. Does that disqualify me from posting on this board?

People who describe themselves as you do are typically liberal anarchists and, while they may share some beliefs with conservatives, their reasons for having these beliefs are quite different from the reason conservatives have them.

[rollo tomasi]

Understood

[Abin Sur]

Okay, we’ll play it this way: when ‘right to die’ becomes ‘duty to die’ will you willingly allow yourself to be a sacrifice at the governments convenience?

Of course not...and I'm well armed.

You don’t ‘believe’ in the ‘supernatural’ yet you are on FR which is a CONSERVATIVE website that is Pro-God.

Any yet there are plenty of atheists (such as myself) posting on it. I'm certainly not going to hide my beliefs (or lack thereof) when it's relevant to the discussion at hand.

The Founders stated that our rights come not from man but from God.

I agree that they stated this. That doesn't make it true, of course, but it is the basis on which our government was founded.

Deny God, we then have no native natural rights.

Again, I agree. The concepts of rights is a human invention.

And then, thus, your life and your achievments then mean nothing.

"Meaning" is also a human invention, thus my life has whatever meaning I choose to invest in it.

So you might as well die and dcrease the surplus population, eh?

I don't want to, so I won't. My life is far too enjoyable to cut it short.

[rollo tomasi]

Sorry “...in pulling his own wet work.” Should be pulling-off

[wagglebee]

I haven't the faintest idea. The first time I'd heard of them was in the context of this article.

So, prior to yesterday you had never even heard of Dignitas; but, based on nothing more than the testimony of a suicidal author, you are going to endorse them?

You really ought to do your homework, because if this is the way you conduct yourself the other pseudo-intellectual secularists are going to eat you alive.

[Darksheare]

So, you are saying that you have NO rights as rights then come from man.

“I don’t want to, so I won’t. My life is far too enjoyable to cut it short.”

No, you just want to push for and gloat over OTHERS dying as in your view it is their ‘right’.

[wagglebee]

Given that I have no belief that "souls" exist, that's not much of a threat.

If a person didn't believe in gravity would that somehow mean that they could jump from the twentieth floor of a building and not be harmed?

[Abin Sur]

They forget that if rights come from man, then they can be taken away because in the end there are no rights.

Not forgotten at all. Robert A. Heinlein sums it up quite nicely in Starship Troopers:

"Ah yes, [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness]... Life? What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'? As to liberty, the heroes who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost. The third 'right'?—the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives—but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can ensure that I will catch it."

(Expanding on his statement that "a human being has no natural rights of any nature.")

[Darksheare]

If humans have no rights, there is no right to die as no rights exist at all either given by God or by man.
You’ve negated your own position.

[Grizzled Bear]

Unless Thompson asked someone to pull the trigger for him, he had "Balls of Steel" in pulling his own wet work. That is how suicide should be portrayed, an ugly selfish mess and not the work of medical professionals.

Whether or not he had "Balls of Steel" is open for debate. He wasn't exactly very courteous, though. His wife and daughter were not aware of his plans and he left an awful mess in the kitchen. Couldn't he have done it in the driveway where most of the mess could be hosed down onto the street and into the storm drain?

[Abin Sur]

Either you back right to die, or you don’t.

Agree to disagree. It depends upon the circumstances.

[Darksheare]

Sorry, circumstances don’t come into it at all.

[Abin Sur]

If you have no soul than what are "you"?

This link may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens

Humans (known taxonomically as Homo sapiens, Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man") are the only living species in the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. Anatomically modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, reaching full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago.

[DJ MacWoW]

Nope. If there is no higher authority than man then man can make his own rules. I don’t have to respect you nor do I have to care about your welfare. You are nothing to me. There is no god to say differently. As long as I don’t get caught I can treat you anyway that I please including cheating and stealing from you. If I don’t get caught there is no price to pay. You don’t matter a whit, only what I think is right matters.

[rollo tomasi]

Thompson lived to shock people and died to shock people. In short, an angry, bitter and sick human being.

The “Balls of steel” is in relation to the fact that Thompson did not whine and cry about “dignity”, he did the deed himself.

[allmendream]

“Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree. There is the constant desire to find out where - where is the point where it all began. But much, much later than that the Discworld was formed. Drifting onwards through space...atop four elephants on the shell of a giant turtle, the great A’Tuin. It was some time after its creation when most people forgot that the very oldest stories of the beginning are sooner or later about blood. At least that's one theory. The philosopher Didactylos suggested an alternative hypothesis: ‘things just happen, what the hell’.” Introduction to Discworld.

[Abin Sur]

If humans have no rights, there is no right to die as no rights exist at all either given by God or by man. You’ve negated your own position.

Incorrect. As I've stated earlier, rights are a human invention. They change over time and from society to society. One example: in the United States, we have the right to practice whatever religion we choose, as long as that practice doesn't infringe on the rights of others.

This right has not existed in most societies throughout history.