Ian Mcewan Quotes

The final disease that nature inflicts on us will determine the atmosphere in which we take our leave of life, but our own choices should be allowed, insofar as possible, to be the decisive factor in the manner of our going.

It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share. It is time to go.

Of death, my father has always said that the best conditions are the ones in which you have plenty of time to prepare - to say what you need to say; to arrange your estate - and the ones in which you get to choose, or at least have some knowledge of, how and when it might happen. One can't elude death, but one can have a good death.

I don't want a few extra weeks of life at enormous cost, for example, when it comes to the end.

I accept the dying process. I would just like to be as healthy as I possibly can at each step and phase along the way.

If I ever went, I'd want to go peacefully in my sleep. I wouldn't want to plan my own death.

It's just awful to see her like this. There comes a point when euthanasia is kinder than the alternative, and I think we reached that juncture some time ago.

My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help.

Hospice is such a tremendous thing. Patients seem to reach an inner peace.

Almost everybody accepts that some people can be killed. 'The concept of 'brain death' - the belief that people on respirators can legitimately be killed - shows that.

It seems sensible to me that we should look to the medical profession, that over the centuries has helped us to live longer and healthier lives, to help us die peacefully among our loved ones in our own home without a long stay in God's waiting room.

Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.

No one wants to live in a wheelchair unable to talk, only winking once for yes and twice for no. It's perfectly reasonable that there will come a point where the balance of judgment of life over death swings the other way.

People always say things like, Oh, well, he was suffering so much that he was better off dying. But that's not true. You're always better off living.

The dignity we seek in dying must be found in the dignity with which we have lived our lives.

As a free person, I ought to be allowed if I'm dying to take something.

I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.

Death used to announce itself in the thick of life but now people drag on so long it sometimes seems that we are reaching the stage when we may have to announce ourselves to death. It is as though one needs a special strength to die, and not a final weakness.

'Death with dignity' is our society's expression of the universal yearning to achieve a graceful triumph over the stark and often repugnant finality of life's last sputterings. But the fact is, death is not a confrontation. It is simply an event in the sequence of nature's ongoing rhythms.

If you think of life and death on a continuum, finding the point where it tips is complicated. It cuts across all political lines and gets to the root of our humanity. It requires faith informed by years of intimacy that you're doing what's right for your loved one.

Hospice means end-of-life care. The admission ticket is a diagnosis from a doctor that you have six months or less to live.

These end of life decisions are so difficult and so personal that government ought to stay out of it.

We could keep his body going, but it was trying its hardest to die.

Hospice has brought such a light in my life. It is something I will be involved with until I need hospice myself.

Unless they've had some experience with it, the hospice is still a mystery to most people. Because hospice deals with death, people tend not to talk about it.