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John-Boy
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 Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:22 pm Post subject: Terry Pratchett starts process to take his own life |
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The book he's referring to is Snuff (I guess), due October time (in UK).
| Quote: | | Sir Terry Pratchett, the fantasy writer who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008, said yesterday he had started the formal process that could lead to his own assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. |
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aidanjt
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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As I said on another forum, the government should leave it up to the individual.
By all means, appease the bureaucrats, if you must, make sure they're sound of mind when they're making the decision, but if they want to go, let them go with dignity, in their home with their family before they're robbed of their family by mental deterioration.
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| juniper wrote: | | you experience political reality dilation when travelling at american political speeds. it's in einstein's formulas. it's not their fault. |
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pjp
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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Not familiar with his work, but a shame.
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wah_wah_69
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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Death isn't cruel – merely terribly, terribly good at his job.
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John-Boy
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| pjp wrote: | | Not familiar with his work, but a shame. |
I gather it's either something you like or not (I do), he's an intelligent chap.
| Quote: | | but if they want to go, let them go with dignity, in their home with their family before they're robbed of their family by mental deterioration. |
I think I remember him saying from a few years ago, that given the choice he'd have picked Cancer over Alzheimer's - anything over having bits of yourself/personality be lost.
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aidanjt
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| John-Boy wrote: | | I think I remember him saying from a few years ago, that given the choice he'd have picked Cancer over Alzheimer's - anything over having bits of yourself/personality be lost. |
I would as well. It's literally a mind flaying, bits of your mind, your life, people you love, stripped away from you one bit at a time. Although forcing someone to suffer through some cancers is almost as bad.
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| juniper wrote: | | you experience political reality dilation when travelling at american political speeds. it's in einstein's formulas. it's not their fault. |
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Oerpi
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| AidanJT wrote: | | John-Boy wrote: | | I think I remember him saying from a few years ago, that given the choice he'd have picked Cancer over Alzheimer's - anything over having bits of yourself/personality be lost. |
I would as well. It's literally a mind flaying, bits of your mind, your life, people you love, stripped away from you one bit at a time. Although forcing someone to suffer through some cancers is almost as bad. |
Knowing you're gonna die will always be hard to come to terms with, but not losing your ability to remember your life/family/loved ones is a big plus in my book. That being said I'm gonna miss him, love his humor.
edit: Also I fully support suicide/assisted suicide being legal. |
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John-Boy
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Oerpi wrote: | | That being said I'm gonna miss him, love his humor. |
Also said that he hoped he could outrun the train long enough for something to turn up, even (again I think) have Mercury fillings replaced with Porcelain efforts.
Anybody known what actually finishes you with Dementia at the end ? Assuming cognitive loss isn't enough on its own ?
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pjp
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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AFAIK, other ailments. And / or lack of will to continue.
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slycordinator
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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| John-Boy wrote: | | I think I remember him saying from a few years ago, that given the choice he'd have picked Cancer over Alzheimer's - anything over having bits of yourself/personality be lost. |
It's also a matter of how bad a person's case of Alzheimer's is.
The people who have extremely "bad" cases where their mind deteriorates quickly have mostly no signs of emotional difficulty from this, since they went downhill so fast that they don' even realize/know that they have the disease whereas someone who's mind deteriorates slowly will usually realize that something is wrong and find it difficult to deal with emotionally.
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Clad in Sky
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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That is really sad.
Sadder still than that Pterry got Alzheimers is that it's so difficult to declare your wish to be killed when it gets really bad and have that wish respected.
I will miss his work (as I don't know the man personally, only met him once at a reading) . But then, he's written a whole lot of stuff and I'm still not through all of it.
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pitcrawler
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| AidanJT wrote: | | John-Boy wrote: | | I think I remember him saying from a few years ago, that given the choice he'd have picked Cancer over Alzheimer's - anything over having bits of yourself/personality be lost. |
I would as well. It's literally a mind flaying, bits of your mind, your life, people you love, stripped away from you one bit at a time. Although forcing someone to suffer through some cancers is almost as bad. |
For a lot of people their memory is so degraded that they revert back to their childhood memories, thinking they live at their childhood home and asking for their (often long dead) parents. Can you imagine suddenly going 'back in time' to your childhood as if the rest of your life never happened, but for some reason being in an old body? It doesn't bear thinking about. |
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slycordinator
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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They also go back to "teenage" years, often times becoming hyper-sexualized again.
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Clad in Sky
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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I think in later stages the disease isn't that horrible for the affected anymore - they just don't know. My girlfriends grandmother had Alzheimers and she just lay in her bed in the nursery, was fed and tended to but all in all was in good health. I don't think she suffered as such.
But what must be horrible is the intermediate stage, when you're still thinking clearly in between phases of dementia.
I myself had a short time memory loss about two weeks ago (probably caused by migraine). I was thinking clearly, I could have a conversation (I called my mother) rather normally. Only I couldn't remember what the conversation was afterwards. The phone call to my mother lasted about 45min and I only could vaguely remember afterwards that I actually called her, let alone what we talked about (luckily my girlfriend had listened to the conversation and filled me in the next day.)
It was the single most disturbing experience I've ever made. I imagine it is like that quite often for Alzheimer patients in the beginning.
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