Sir Ludovic Kennedy, the famous broadcaster and campaigner for euthanasia, has died of natural causes, aged 89. May he rest in peace. SPUC extends its sympathies to his loved ones. Sir Ludovic was president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (which has now repackaged itseld as "Dignity in Dying”).In a talk she gave earlier this year, Alison Davis of No Less Human quoted Sir Ludovic, who wrote in 2001:
"The patient must be beyond the help of treatment, and find his suffering, physical or mental, unbearable ... Nor is it only pain...which causes people to long for death, but the miserable side-effects which often accompany it – incontinence, vomiting, bedsores, breathlessness, oedema, insomnia – leading to a gradual disintegration of the personality and death without dignity."Alison commented:
"I experience all the symptoms he cites apart from bedsores, and have done for many years, so presumably my personality must be well disintegrated by now. Perhaps my friends are too polite to tell me!"Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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