[Rob Wilkins writes about Assisted Dying]
"Only when the assisted dying bill passes will I stop feeling angry about Terry Pratchett's final years" - Rob Wilkins
Today's debate in the House of Commons on the Assisted Dying Bill is extremely important to the thousands of families whose terminally ill family members could benefit from assisted dying being legalised within the UK.
If it gets passed, for us at Better Than and the many thousands of Pratchett fans, it would be a fitting legacy to the author we all know and love, who battled for the right to die in his final years before his death in 2015.
The assisted dying bill would carry out Terry Pratchett's final wish - to give those who require it, the right to die.
Rob Wilkins, Terry's business manager spoke to The Independent about the upcoming debate.
"... the Terry I knew would be frustrated with those politicians who are now wavering in their support for a private member's bill on assisted dying, that would allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards, to have that choice. As I do, he would find it unfathomable that some MPs – in the face of public opinion in favour of legislation, as well as so much evidence that the status quo is failing dying people – are not only dragging their feet on this issue but turning their backs on it. I'm angry that Terry spent so much of the precious time he had left fighting for assisted dying when he could have been doing other things he so enjoyed. Until the fight is won, precious time continues to be lost. In the moments immediately before he finally shook hands with death, Terry knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be sitting in a chair on his lawn, a brandy in his hand and Thomas Tallis playing on his iPod. Had an assisted death been available to him at a time that he needed it, he certainly wouldn't have chosen to spend so much of his final years talking about death and dying. He loved life too much and wanted to wring the juice out of every day. He loved writing, but he also loved watching the otters in the River Ebble at the bottom of his garden and gazing at the stars from his little observatory."
He goes on to say from his perspective of the current debate.
"Having watched the debate play out before the Leadbeater bill is thrashed out in the House of Commons on 29 November, it saddens me that some MPs have been sidestepping an obvious fact – that the current law harms people every day. Instead, those who oppose it cling to dubious claims of how much ending that harm will cost in pounds and pence. It feels like the narrative being portrayed is head versus heart, or life versus death, but I don't believe that's the case. And nor, I believe, would Terry. To back assisted dying is to choose life. Terry's dying wish was for people to have some choice about when they come face to face with death. That's why we talked so much about dying instead of watching otters. MPs have a real opportunity to give the British public the gift of time when they come to vote on this bill. Time free from “what if” when the inevitable is looming. Only when we get that right can we start thinking about who we want playing on our proverbial iPod when we say goodbye, where we want to be listening to it, and what tipple we want in our final glass. And perhaps then I will stop feeling so angry about what could have been for Terry."
We at Better Than wait with baited breath for the decisions to be made by the MPs in Parliament, but we sincerely hope they choose to treat humans with the same compassion we treat our animals.
If you wish to read the full article in the Independent, it can be found behind a paywall