Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die Page #3

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suicide over and over again,

which I can heartily not

recommend to anybody,

having seen

the aftermath of quite a few.

'I went to meet a man who has

had to face the dark thoughts

'that can come with living with

a painful and incurable disease,

'in his case, multiple sclerosis.'

Hello? Hey, there.

You would be Andrew, I expect.

Terry. How are you?

Fine, thank you. Yourself?

Sorry, it's not the thing

you kind of expect -

Terry Pratchett just to wander

into your living room. It's...

How old are you, Andrew?

When did you get...

MS, isn't it? Yes. MS.

I started to have tiny symptoms

going back to the '90s,

but I was actually diagnosed

in 2003.

Most mornings, I get out of the bed

by falling out of bed.

Then I'll have to crawl

from room to room when I'm bad.

All I have to look forward to now

is things getting worse.

It's like walking down

an alley

that's getting...narrower

with no doors. It's sort of...

Less place to move around. Yeah.

I can't, and I don't want to,

live the life I've got now.

What other things

have you considered?

I have tried and I seem fairly

indestructible on that point.

You have tried to kill yourself,

yes? Yes.

How many times?

Er, two.

How? Right...

Once was I took three

months' worth of morphine tablets,

and that should have flattened

an elephant, initially.

But, apparently, no.

All I did is knock myself out

for five days.

I kind of opened my eyes, and the

very first thing that flashed across

my mind was,

"Oh, for...!"

It was just utter frustration.

It comes to the point

where I'm going to have

to rely on somebody else,

pay somebody else

to do it for me, and do it properly.

I would like to have

a death which is...

comfortable,

relatively...painless.

And I'm really of the opinion

that...

why shouldn't I?

Do you think you might go one day?

Er, yes.

I have an appointment. It's already

sorted. What, actually the day?

Yes, the day. Yeah.

When will you be travelling

to Dignitas?

I fly out on Sunday.

I go in there,

there's this...there's this kid.

I was astonished.

You know, I wish there was time

to get to know Andrew.

Very likeable person too.

For a stranger to turn up and say,

"No, no, no, you shouldn't

be doing this," I mean...

You can say, "Have you considered

the other options?" and so forth.

There comes a point

where you have to say,

"This is somebody's decision,

"and it's their decision,

"it doesn't mean anyone else

should make the same decision,

"but that is the decision

they want to make."

'A few days later, I discovered

that the couple I'd met,

'Peter and Christine, had also

booked flights to Switzerland

'in the very same week

as young Andrew.

'I decided to follow them,

'to find out about assisted dying

for myself.'

It was December,

just a few weeks before Christmas.

The car's running outside,

and we're just about to leave

and I'm feeling really...

I just feel really weird about it.

It just feels the weirdest thing -

to go somewhere to die.

It doesn't stack up.

'But they're nice guys and they're

going to Switzerland to die,

and it feels like the worst...

'it IS the worst thing in the

world and it feels so wrong.'

Ever since we began this odyssey...

..I tend to...

Woke up at seven in the morning...

'..and a head full of questions,

'which I hope to get answers for.'

"Dignitas was founded in 1998

by Ludwig A Minelli...

"a Swiss lawyer."

I didn't know that.

What was the term

you picked up that was used?

"21% of people receiving

assisted dying in Dignitas

"do not have

terminal or progressive illnesses

but rather a 'weariness of life'."

What do you do about someone

who is hellbent on wanting to die,

even if they appear

to be fit and well?

But who owns your life?

'Switzerland is the only country

in the world

'where foreigners

can go to be helped to die.'

Mr Minelli. Hello, Terry.

Nice to meet you.

It's nice to meet you.

At the office of...

'For roughly 10,000,

Mr Minelli's non-profit organisation

'will make all the arrangements

necessary for you to end your life.

'This includes cremation

'or transportation of the body

back home.

'In the past 12 years, they've

helped over 1,100 people to die.

'Even in Switzerland,

Minelli is a controversial figure.'

Before you went into the Hades

business, what did you do then?

I got acquainted with the European

Convention on Human Rights,

and this has changed my life.

And in Article 8, there is

the right to self-determination.

You mean an actual human right

to die?

An actual human right to die.

Even when they haven't a terminal

or progressive illness?

Even if it is just a weariness

of life? Yes. You know,

the right to self-determination

should include also the right

to make a decision

upon one's own end.

Well, here are the files

of our members.

The white files are the files

of members who are still living.

And...

about 70% of them

will never call again

after having got

the provisional green light.

Knowing that you can...

often means that you won't.

Yes.

To know that you can go

gives you strength.

'Mr Minelli took me on a drive

'20 minutes out of Zurich to

the apartment where you go to die.'

And there you have the Alps

with fresh snow.

'For many,

this is their final journey.'

I have also brought along fine tea,

because I thought you are Englishman

and would like to drink also tea.

I have 50 different teas at my home

and therefore I am a teologian,

and this is the only teology

which I accept.

'Swiss nationals may be helped

to die in their own homes...'

There we are.

'..but for us foreigners,

'this little blue house

is where you end your life.'

Cup of tea? That would be very

kind of you, thank you very much.

Well, this is one of the two rooms

where an accompaniment takes place.

Either in the bed

or there in the seat.

We have another room.

'If you come here you'll be met by

two Dignitas escorts -

'not doctors -

who guide you through the process.'

Sometimes it happens that we have

two different families here,

so that we need two rooms

for accompaniments.

And do the two families meet?

Normally not.

Because they are not finished

at the same time.

The person who wants to die

must make the last act

in their life

herself or himself.

No opposition, no depression.

This miserable life at the end

will have an end, finally.

Uh-huh.

And then we have our garden.

So it is a very peaceful place.

As much as it can be

on an industrial estate!

Yes, and following a decision

of the Swiss federal court,

we can only be in an industrial area

and not in a residential area.

I think I can see

their thinking for it.

Not in my back yard. Yes!

There is nothing special or unusual.

Something spinning along

in the factory next door.

People come in here and leave dead.

Minelli's belief that everyone

should have an unequivocal right

to an assisted death worries me

in an English kind of way.

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