Brighton MS Sufferer Ends His Own Life at Dignitas
There is something quite disturbing about this article. Someone is missing from it.
The article reports...
'A man who featured in a documentary about his battle against multiple sclerosis has died at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. Renowned graphic artist Johnny Hicklenton, best known for his work on comic books Judge Dredd and 2000AD, visited the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic after a ten year fight against the disease.
Friend Adam Lavis, who co-directed the TV documentary, travelled with 42-year-old Mr Hicklenton to the clinic. He described the Brighton artist as a “warrior.” He said: “Over the years he became a very good friend. He was someone I worked with but he became someone much more than that to me. He was like a brother. Despite the love of his family and friends, the MS became like torture. It was like a war for him, and he fought for as long as he could. The bravery for him to get up and go through that door was staggering. The decision to go to Dignitas really focused him. He decided a while ago that he didn't want to go down the road where it would permanently disable him.” He added that Mr Hicklenton had passed away at the clinic on Friday March 19.
Mr Lavis said: “He said that if he hadn't gone last week he wouldn't have been able to travel. It enabled him to live a lot longer. He said to me that he would've given up last year if he didn't have Dignitas in his mind. He beat MS. It takes away the control of your life but this gave him control.”
Mr Hicklenton's fight against MS, which he was diagnosed with in 2000, was the subject of the award-winning documentary ‘Here's Johnny’, produced by Brighton production company Animal Monday. Mr Hicklenton’s body was cremated in Switzerland. His ashes are to be flown back to the UK shortly for a memorial service.
A spokeswoman for the MS Trust said: "The fact that John Hicklenton was prepared to use his fame to raise awareness of a condition so often overlooked by the media, and to wage his personal war on MS so publicly is something that is greatly appreciated by people in the MS community.
"Anyone wanting more information on MS should contact the MS Trust on 01462 476700 or visit www.mstrust.org.uk.”
Aside from offering our condolences to the family of this well-loved man, what can we say to them? They must be devastated. Oh, hang on, we don't know how they feel about this tragedy because those pioneers in journalistic excellence at The Argus have either not been able to contact them or decided their views were unnecessary, just printed the views of his "friend" in the media .
The other deeply disturbing aspect of this story is that the Multiple Schlorosis Trust have tacitly given approval of Mr Hicklenton's actions in the press when it should, in fact, be stressing that just because you suffer from MS, you don't have to kill yourself and that there is help and support out there if you are suffering with this chronic disease. God help this country and may the soul of Mr Hicklenton and the souls of all the departed rest in peace.
Comments
I am sorry for your loss.
This article is about suicide, assisted suicide and its promotion by a newspaper and the MS Trust.
Helix
Nothing would give Catholics greater joy than to be martyred and enjoy God forever, while praying that their persecutors do not suffer eternal damnation for martyrinng them.
This is called mercy which Christ encouraged us towards.
The Church is not into murder of self or others or aiding and abetting it. This is the opposite of mercy. Though it is often dressed up as mercy, it is not. It is the taking of human life.
If booking into a hotel and getting someone to inject you with a lethal cocktail of barbiturates is such a great thing, why is it that it is only available in Switzerland and the Swiss Government in October published proposals which could close down controversial suicide centre Dignitas?
So called assisted suicide tells me that people who do this think people like me have no right to be alive. We have no right to inflict our suffering on others; we should die.
I loathe those people and God help me-I'm not sure I can forgive them.
They trot out crips onto TV so that able people can look down on all of us with pity.
Well I am HUMAN TOO and I'M NOT DEAD YET! S
Thank you Laurence for your genuine empathy.
I am truly sorry that your mother endured so much. But how do you reconcile this with the words, for example, of Baroness Finlay, a leading palliative care specialist, when she observes that repeated calls for assisted dying are "vanishingly rare with good sensitive care"?
Experience suggests that the prime motivator for seeking assisted suicide is not physical suffering but a desire for control.
So, I am left wondering whether your mother's care was good enough.
The problem we have is that pain relief and palliative care is not adequately resourced in this country: Although the expertise is there it is not available to all. Hence the Care not Killing Alliance which campaigns for what it say on the tin.
You are clearly angry but you do your case no service by your intemperate and uncharitable language, particularly towards Anonymous 2. Is he/she not suffering enough?
Please consider that many vulnerable people are deeply concerned that the current aggressive and unbalanced campaign for a change in the law will lead ultimately to a culture in which killing becomes an accepted alternative to good care.
Anonymous 2,
I am so sorry you are suffering this way. Could you not ask for another specialist and seek better care? If that fails try writing to Baroness Finlay for advice (House of Lords).
Laurence,
Thank you for your characteristically acute and compassionate observations.
Johnny was my younger brother. He was a brave, dignified, funny, kind, thoughtful and talented man.
I miss him every single day.
I don't miss knowing the constant pain he was in, the falls he had, the fact he was confined to his flat in a wheelchair, the endless sleepless nights he had in spite of the awful exhaustion he endured with MS. I don't miss the fear he had to suffer every day about what symptoms would be rearing their very ugly heads next.
He was coping with stuff that I hope you never have to face, you wicked individual. He was 30 when he got MS. How old are you?
The ignorance, spite and bile in this post is absolutely unbelievable. I assume it comes from repression, fear, inadequacy and immaturity. I'm a Christian and I don't judge people like you do.
It's none of your business that as a family we haven't been quoted by the newspapers.
There's been masses about him on the internet and we have maintained a dignified silence in his honour but this nasty nasty stuff is one step too far.
It is people who aid, abett and support suicide who are wicked, those who put a price on the life of another, not those who condemn it.
I don't judge him, I don't judge you and I sympathise with your grief and your bereavement, but assisted suicide is not something that should be promoted, end of.
May his soul rest in peace.