Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die Page #6

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"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

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