Last March, artist John Hicklenton, who had multiple sclerosis, killed himself at the Dignitas “clinic” in Switzerland. It was clear at the time that many people who knew him were aware of his plans and just quietly accepted his decision.
It turns out that not everyone who knew Hicklenton just blandly accepted his wish to kill himself, according to an interview with Jaz Coleman – frontman for the band Killing Joke. From Rockradio in the UK:
Killing Joke were so upset that artist John Hicklenton was planning to kill himself that the band kept commissioning more work from him to postpone his final act.
Hicklenton, known for his work on cult comic 2000AD, ended his life in March this year after a battle against multiple sclerosis. He was 42 when he entered the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for an assisted suicide.
Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman believes many people will find it hard to understand how his band feel about what many people see as the ultimate human right.
Coleman tells The Quietus: “There’s a lot of death around these days. We had two fatalities while we were recording the new album: bass player Youth’s father, and Johnny.
“He’s the guy from 2000AD who got all our stuff to Heath Ledger. Johnny was dying from MS. We kept commissioning him so we could put back the date.
“I suppose it would be a problem for a lot of people to realise that suicide, on any level, doesn’t sit well with any of us in Killing Joke. Not even Dignitas.
“I had my friend who was committing suicide at Dignitas. He said to me, ‘There’s a woman in this room – she says I’ve got to be dead by two o’clock’.”
For those who think there’s anything “dignified” about Dignitas, read that last line again. Hicklenton had to cut his call short in order to hurry up, kill himself, and allow the staff to make the room available to the next beneficiary of the organization’s brand of “death with dignity.”
It’s stunning reading this that Coleman feels he has to explain why he and other band members went to some effort to get their friend to put off his suicide. Like he has to defend giving the man reasons to live a while longer. He didn’t use coercion, or call in the mental health police. He just gave him more work that – obviously – could only be done if he was living.
Even then, Coleman says that some people might not understand – and I’m afraid he’s probably right.
But I hope he knows that some people do understand – and are grateful for his efforts – and taking time to say that suicide isn’t really that great a thing. –Stephen Drake
Hearbreaking. Thank you for writing this.