I didn’t watch this interview, so maybe he repeats himself, but in an earlier interview, Pratchett said “I plan to jump before I’m pushed.”
That’s really what it comes down to, imo. He doesn’t have an option for not being pushed. Therefore, he’s made a rational decision not to wait until his suffering becomes acute.
I think there’s a difference between a rational decision about ending one’s life, based on a stark assessment of medical facts, and an irrational urge to suicide which besets people suffering from depression. I think in western society we conflate the two. If we had … I’m not even sure what, precisely. A sort of pre-hospice planning facility where people could discuss their options and be steered towards the help needed.
I get people’s concerns about the necessary safeguards and also about making things easier for the mentally ill. I just think we should recognize the difference between a rational assessment and an irrational impulse. (And I say this as someone who struggles with the irrational on a regular basis.)
A problem really highlighted for me by that documentary was that the current law forbidding assisted suicide isn’t keeping people from suicide, it’s pushing them into doing it early.
Both the people followed in that documentary would have preferred to stay at home, and live a little (potentially even years) longer, but they felt pressured into doing it while they could still get to the clinic which made it available. Also, I do feel that it’s barbaric in the UK that the deciding factor on whether you die on your own terms or not is simply whether or not you can afford to get to Switzerland.
My Grandmother was probably illegally euthanised; she’d been stable but unconscious for over a week, had a serious heart condition, and gangrene in both legs- and died basically as soon as my Dad left the building after making the descision not to try amputate her legs and maybe give her a few months more life in a hospital bed. I know neither of my parents would complain if their suspicions were proven on that; they’d probably thank the person who made that choice. Sometimes, it’s simply the right thing to do.
My mother suffered from dementia for months before she finally passed. If there’s a higher power, I hope to It that I’ll have the opportunity to off myself before I get to that state.
It always amazes me how the people who are dead set against assisted suicide are (mostly) all gung-ho for capital punishment. I don’t know what percentage of executed people are actually innocent, but it is non-zero. Think of the people who have been exonerated by DNA evidence.
One thing I will never forget is the AG of Florida who was fighting against a guy on death row who had been exonerated by new evidence. He said that he didn’t care if he had absolute proof of the guy’s innocence, he had been condemned by the procedures of the state and it was his job to see him executed. That is true dementia.
Getting back to the OP, I am a huge Pratchett fan and this whole thing is so sad. It sounds like it isn’t progressing that fast. I had read somewhere that people who have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in their 50s generally go quickly.
I highly recommend the documentary How to Die in Oregon.