VETERAN television presenter Gay Byrne has told he would consider suicide if faced with terminal illness.
The RTE presenter (80) said the prospect of dying in great pain was something he dreaded and he would rather it would "happen very very quickly" and be a case of "Thank you. Goodbye. Lights out".
"If you are facing into a long drawn out terrible illness with great pain, I think that is an option," he told the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster.
"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.
"Your dread is you will lie a long time in awful pain and disability."
The broadcaster told Nolan he was not afraid of getting older - and felt he was in good shape. "I cannot believe I am 80 years of age because my father, amongst other people, died at 58," he said.
"And here I am at 80 years of age, and I am puny in physique in comparison with him, but yet I've made 80 years of age and I can't believe it."
He also revealed that he thought about death, but didn't dwell on it.
"Well of course you think of death, but I think you think of death far earlier than 80 years of age," he said.
"Well I know it's coming and I know it's going get here for me before it gets here for you."
