Gay Byrne: I would consider assisted suicide

Veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne has said that he would "have to consider" assisted suicide if he was faced with "a drawn-out illness of great pain".

He was speaking to BBC 5Live's The Nolan Show yesterday, which was discussing moves by British Labour Party peer Lord Falconer to introduce an Assisted Dying Bill in the UK House of Lords.

When asked if turning 80 years old prompted him to start thinking of death, the RTÉ legend said: “Well of course you think about death, of course you do.

“But I think you think about death far earlier than 80 years of age.

“I know it’s coming and it’s going to get here for me long before it gets here for you [41-year-old presenter Stephen Nolan], for example.

“I’m not afraid of it, I don’t dwell on it, I don’t worry about it, but my main aim is to realise now that, in fact, every day is a bonus.

“I used to hear my mother, and father indeed, say things like this - and I didn’t really believe them when I was a kid – but every day that you can get out of bed and stand up straight – that’s a good day.

“Every day is a good day if you’re well and healthy and moving and doing things.”

When Nolan described previous discussions regarding assisted suicide, and asked if Byrne has “thought those things through”, Byrne responded: “Well, that’s the dread of everybody.

“My dread would be that I would lie a long time in awful pain … and disability and so on, I’d rather it happened very, very quickly and gone – thank you, goodbye, lights out.

Nolan asked: “But if it didn’t, would you want to take your own life?”

Byrne responded: “Yes, I think there’s a great deal of rationality behind that, and I think it is a choice that people can make, and if you are facing into a long, drawn-out, terrible illness of great pain, I think that is an option.”

Asked if he might do it himself, the broadcaster responded: “I think I would have to consider it … although it is against all the tenets of everything we have been taught.

“But more and more people are realising that’s the way out, and maybe we should take it.”