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Vivienne Chow

Five years ago a quadriplegic put euthanasia in the spotlight with his plea in a letter to then-chief executive Tung Chee-hwa  to allow people to choose.
Now Tang Siu-pun  is ready to help bring the emotive issue out into the open again in his blog. 
Despite his advocacy for euthanasia, Mr Tang said he did not intend to draw a conclusion on the issue in his blog for Health and Lifestyle Channel's new show Euthanasia?, but he hoped to encourage people to think about it. 
'Death is a taboo topic among Chinese societies. It is impossible for euthanasia to be legalised in Hong Kong. The government won't even think about it,' said Mr Tang, better known as Ah Bun. 
'When I brought this up years ago, it became a hot topic only for a short while.' 
But Mr Tang still strongly believes every person should be given the right to choose life or death. 
'I support the idea that people should be given this right because the meaning of your life belongs to you. No one should have the right to tell you when you can live and how long you should live for.
'Why can healthy people kill themselves at any time but people like us cannot? We aren't able to commit suicide.'
Born in 1969, Mr Tang has been living in Queen Mary Hospital for 18 years since injuring his spine in 1991 while somersaulting during rehearsals for a graduation ceremony.
He was unable to walk or speak, breathing through a hole in his throat. He typed using chopsticks held in his mouth.
But now his condition has improved. He can speak softly and is able to type more than 10 Chinese characters per minute using a special mouse controlled by his head. 
In 2007 he published a 300-page Chinese-language book called I Want Euthanasia, a memoir about his life  that also argued for his right to die peacefully with dignity.
He will launch a second book  this month, interviewing well-known people about their personal failures. 
In light of his letter to Mr Tung, becoming an author and then appearing at a seminar at the Hong Kong Book Fair, Mr Tang was asked  whether he still wanted euthanasia for himself.  'It's not that I want euthanasia. The problem is, I don't even have the right to make a decision.'  
But life for Mr Tang has become more hopeful.
In just a few months he will  move out of the hospital and live on his  own with the support of a domestic helper. 
He said he did not have particularly high hopes for his new life but he already had some plans in mind.
'I never thought I'd become an author,' he said. 'I didn't have much training and didn't read that much, so finding a way to express my thoughts with words can sometimes be a little difficult.
'I'm a night owl and I usually wait until other people sleep before I start doing my work. 
'Living on my own will be much better for my creativity. I can catch up with the reading I never did.'



For Ah Bun, it's a matter of life and death