New Philosopher – July 2019

NewPhilosopher

thatit wouldnotevenbeworthstak-

inga betonthisoutcomeevenif the

payoff would be huge in the highly

unlikelycircumstanceof‘winning’.In

WilliamJames’sterms,lifeafterdeath

wasnota ‘live’optionforM,justasit

wasn’tforHume.

Onewayof measuringthestrength

ofsomeone’sbeliefonanytopicis to

observe whattheyactuallydo, rather

thanjustlistentowhattheysayabout

whattheywilldoinsuchandsucha

circumstance.It’sonethingtoendorse

theviewthatanindividualwitha ter-

minalillnessshouldbefreetoendhis

orherlife,andtoseekassistancetodo

soif incapableofperformingthatfi-

nalact;butit’ssomethingelseentirely

to followthrough onthis oneself,to

performaswellastoendorsea philo-

sophical position, particularly when

thisis irreversible,andwilllikelyhave

profoundconsequences for othersas

wellasforoneself.Mwasa firmbe-

lieverin individualfreedom,andfelt

thatpeopleshouldbefreeto choose

toendtheirownlivesorbeassistedto

dosowhentheyreasonablyjudgedthe

futureonlyhelddecline,suffering,and

lossofcontrol.Thisis a freedomtode-

clinetotakethatoptiontoo,ofcourse:

many people will always choose a

combination of natural decline and

palliative care over intervention that

causesdeathdirectly.

Mdidn’twanttobepassiveinthe

face of his terminal illness, but also

didn’twanttoputhisfamilythrough

thetraumatic consequences ofa po-

tentiallybotchedsuicideattempt.He

livedintheUKandhadto travelto

Switzerlandatgreatexpensetofinda

reliablepharmaceuticalmethodofsu-

icide,onethathecouldbesurewould

Learning when to die

be both painless and would result in

a quick and easy death. A man with

a developed social conscience, he felt

it deeply unfair that he, a relatively

wealthy retired professor, was able to

afford this way out, while others less

fortunate would, having made a sane

assessment of how the next months

were likely to pan out for them, do the

same, but could not afford to do what

he was doing. Suicide isn’t illegal in

the UK, but assisting someone to die

can be. He didn’t want to decline so

much that he was unable to travel. He

made his final journey and was able to

end his life in the company of loved

ones, after medical assessments, and

with a reliable method of leaving life.

After avowing that this was the day

he wanted to die, he took two drinks.

First an anti-emetic, then the phar-

maceutical equivalent of hemlock (ap-

propriate perhaps for a philosopher)

• followed by a chocolate to take away
  the bitter taste. He soon lost con-
  sciousness, and died. We all should be
  allowed to make similar choices. For
  the terminally ill who believe life isn’t
  sacred and can become so painful and
  impoverished for the individual that
  more of it would be worse than death,
  this should be an option. It takes a
  kind of courage to choose this way
  out, one that we should admire rather
  than regret. Montaigne wrote an es-
  say on the topic that to philosophise
  is to learn how to die. I would add
  that to philosophise is also to learn
  when to die.

“ These days we just count up ‘likes’.”