Shaking Hands with Death

Why we all deserve a life worth living and a death worth dying for âe~Most men donâe(tm)t fear death. They fear those things âe" the knife, the shipwreck, the illness, the bomb âe" which precede, by microseconds if youâe(tm)re lucky, and many years if youâe(tm)re not, the moment of death.âe(tm) When Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimerâe(tm)s in his fifties he was angry - not with death but with the disease that would take him there, and with the suffering disease can cause when we are not allowed to put an end to it. In this essay, broadcast to millions as the BBC Richard Dimblebly Lecture 2010 and previously only available as part of A Slip of the Keyboard, he argues for our right to choose - our right to a good life, and a good death too.