Stewart: I’m Not Immortal
2 min read
On ITV‘s This Morning program, Sir Patrick Stewart spoke about assisted dying. Stewart is a patron of Dignity of Dying, a group that seeks to change the UK laws regarding assisted dying for patients who are terminally-ill.
The topic is personal to Stewart, who has a friend whose wife was ill with cancer and attempted suicide twice, finally succeeding on the second attempt.
“[The way she committed suicide was] a traumatic, painful, miserable way to die, said Stewart.”And [it was] a traumatic way for your husband to discover that’s the way you’ve died.
“So often when I’m talking about doctor-assisted dying, it is the situation concerning loved ones, relatives, children, friends; like my friend telling me, where this comfort needs to be given.”
Stewart’s own health scare back in the early 2000’s made him realize that he wasn’t immortal.
“I was diagnosed very unexpectedly during my annual physical and…my cardiologist said to me ‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ and I said ‘actually, I’m going to Paramount Pictures for lunch.’ He said ‘I’d rather you didn’t’ and in five minutes, I was on a gurney giving details of next-of-kin so it was rather dramatic. So I didn’t have time to brood on it but what I did know was that I was in the best possible hands I could have been in and that I was going to be taken care of whatever the outcome.
“But yes, it was a wake-up call. Patrick, you are not immune.”
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