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I thought id link this for you all, im sure most the Brits, and any Americans with genuine taste will enjoy it.

One of the best spent fifty minutes ive had in the last fortnight, an amusing and somewhat saddening lecture, from Terry Pratchett.

Im not a sentimental man, but i think he seems very dignified, and i can always respect that. He will be sadly missed indeed.

Enjoy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qmfgn/Richard_Dimbleby_Lecture_Shaking_Hands_with_Death/

Iplayer doesn't work abroad.

I saw it last night, v good. Although I must admit when I first flicked onto it I thought Tony Robbinson had contracted alzheimers.

lol. Tony isnt that bad is he? I thought he read it rather well..

He did, I just didn't catch on it was Terry Pratchet's words when I first turned it on.

Ah i see, i presume it was on television last night then?

I just found it on Iplayer.

I liked the phrase at the start you may have missed if you walked in on it last night, he called Robinson his "Stunt Pratchett".

Yeh I saw it on TV.

Not so sure about some of the content on the speech mind. He seemed to go on in the middle about how most people ignore the fact they are eventually going to die as if it was a bad thing. Me, I don't really agree that living life with a constant acknowledgment that you are going to die is going to get you anywhere.

It's on YouTube as a 5 parter.

Oh right, thanks Kan, ill have a look for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUE3pBIuAGk Part I

I thought it was a very good lecture, a decent amount of humour, and very dignified.
Tony Robinson was used as one of the symptoms of posterior cortical atrophy is that he cannot read text for long periods of time (so he had Robinson do it for him)

Props on the use of the word 'fortnight'. Will comment further after watching.

Edit: Interesting thus far, but it seems too aesthetic for my taste. I agree that death should be a choice where possible, but the notion that dignity must be a descriptor feels wrong. Death is never dignified. It is ugly, brutal, painful, tragic, horrid, and any number of other adjectives which carry a less than positive meaning. It seems the desire for dignity follows from a feeling of vanity maintained through life, rather than any appeal to a sort of objective goodness. Of course, that doesn't mean we should deny the desirous a 'dignified' death; it simply means that our reasons for doing so should be divergent from my understanding of the popular concept of dignity.