RTE star Gay Byrne has revealed he would consider assisted suicide if he was faced with a painful “drawn-out illness”.
The former Late Late Show host, 80, said he has started thinking about death and hopes it would happen “very, very quickly for him”.
He added: “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.”
And Gay admitted that if it didn’t, he would want to take his own life.
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He added: “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.
“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.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Nolan Show he added that “of course” he has been thinking about death after hitting 80.
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He added: “I know it’s coming and it’s going to get here for me long before it gets here for you [host Stephen Nolan, 41], 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.”
