Jo Walton
I don't know. I've thought about it a lot. I can certainly understand people who make that decision.
I'd consider it. It comes down to quality of life. I look at my friends and family members with Alzheimers or dementia and I think there's a point where I wouldn't want to be alive any more. But that point is well beyond confusion and where she is in the book -- she can read, and she mostly knows who people are. She isn't living in fear and anxiety the way we see her mother. I think judging where that line is for oneself would be very hard, and impossible for somebody else -- and of course, one wouldn't be oneself with one's powers of judgement, and that's the point.
But I I don't live in a country where euthanasia is an option. I think it should be, it should always be, for everyone. Life is a choice.
You might be interested in my "Death Sucks" sonnet cycle, on my website, especially the last poem: http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/poetry/1...
I'd consider it. It comes down to quality of life. I look at my friends and family members with Alzheimers or dementia and I think there's a point where I wouldn't want to be alive any more. But that point is well beyond confusion and where she is in the book -- she can read, and she mostly knows who people are. She isn't living in fear and anxiety the way we see her mother. I think judging where that line is for oneself would be very hard, and impossible for somebody else -- and of course, one wouldn't be oneself with one's powers of judgement, and that's the point.
But I I don't live in a country where euthanasia is an option. I think it should be, it should always be, for everyone. Life is a choice.
You might be interested in my "Death Sucks" sonnet cycle, on my website, especially the last poem: http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/poetry/1...
More Answered Questions
Xena WP
asked
Jo Walton:
Jo, after finishing Transcription by K. Atkinson I wished for a few paragraphs at least of Juliet’s happy discovery of Italy and enjoyment of motherhood, things you describe movingly in My Real Children. I read My Real Children shortly after readingLife After Life and I thought they enriched each other. Have you read Life After Life and do you think it is a work of SFF? (If MRC is, then LAL is IMO.)
Sirana
asked
Jo Walton:
Your writing both on Petrarch and Pico della Mirandola has given me a nudge to finally learn more about the Renaissance. What would you consider the best introduction for somebody who basically has only school knowledge of the period? I am looking for some broad overview that I can use as a jumping off point to delve deeper into specific issues. I don't mind dry or scholarly language.
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