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Katie Hopkins: 'We've extended life beyond the optimal point of departure'

Columnist wants to be 'banged over head with a hammer' if she gets dementia

Lizzie Dearden
Wednesday 11 June 2014 11:17 BST
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Katie Hopkins has made an unwelcome foray into the debate on assisted suicide by saying she wants to be “banged over the head with a hammer” if she gets dementia.

In a column for the Sun, she continued her campaign to become Britain’s most hated talking head by saying “old people are not wanted” by society.

The 39-year-old wrote: “What's the point in living longer if all we're going to do is get in the way or sit in expensive nursing homes unable to recognise our own reflection in the mirror?

"If I get like that, for God's sake bang me over the head with a hammer… if I can't recognise my children, what's the point in them coming to see me?

“They have lives to enjoy and, frankly, I have fairies to be away with.”

Hopkins said she would take herself off to an assisted suicide clinic before she became a “nuisance”.

"I am getting the words 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE' tattooed across my forehead at 60,” she added.

“Society has tried giving old people the hint that they are not wanted.”

The former Apprentice contestant took to Twitter to defend her comments but the backlash continued.

Several people shared their own, happy, experiences of caring after elderly loved ones.

One wrote: “Visiting my grandfather did not 'suck the life' from me. I was there for him every day. Wouldn't have changed it for the world.”

Hopkins said she was “unsure” why people found her comments offensive.

She wrote: “I am off with the fairies, I want my kids off with their friends. I refuse to be a burden.

“We extended life beyond the optimal point of departure. What is the point in sucking life from the young? Kids, take my cash & have a blast.”

Many people supported her stance, using the row to call for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

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