Patrick Stewart’s end-of-life worries

last updated 8 January 2015

Patrick Stewart has no intention of suffering a long, lingering death, said Giles Hattersley in the London Times. The actor, best known for his role on Star Trek, has joined a British organization called Dignity in Dying, which wants to make it legal for terminally ill people to end their own lives at a time of their choosing. “To be trapped in a painful body, to lose those elements of communication, of sharing, and not to be able to act terrifies me,” says Stewart, 70. His convictions were deepened by the experience of a friend’s wife, who suffered horribly with an illness before “ending her life in the most ghastly way.”

He got a rude reminder of his own mortality five years ago, when he suffered chest pains during a brisk walk. “The doctor said, ‘You have coronary heart disease, 85 percent blockage.’ He then said, ‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ I said, ‘I’m going to lunch at Paramount.’ He said, ‘We’d rather you didn’t.’” Ten minutes later he was lying on a gurney, headed for surgery. He’s now fine, but when the time for dying comes, Stewart wants the right to beam himself up rather than become incapacitated. “The decision has to be made while you can still make the decision.’’