Life Begins At.....
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/840547
In Victoria, a cross-party committee of the state's Upper House conducted an exhaustive 10-month-long inquiry into end-of-life issues including a law on assisted dying, culminating in a recommendation to do just that. Currently, the legal framework is being determined, and will be presented to that state's parliament in the second half of the year. The legislation will include strong checks and balances, and would be an option available to adult Victorians who likely have only a short time to live and who suffer from a serious and incurable illness. The most important feature is that the law will be completely voluntary: for patients, doctors and also institutions. No one is forced to take part and there will be strong safeguards to ensure this. New South Wales has also taken a step closer to allowing terminally ill people to voluntarily end their lives, with a draft bill with cross-party support being released. Like the Victorian legislation, this bill will also face a conscience vote when it's fi nalised and then introduced to state parliament. And at the time of writing the Tasmanian parliament was also due to debate a bill. OVERWELMING COMMUNITY SUPPORT Numerous surveys have found around 75% of Australians support a law for voluntary assisted dying. Another important fi nding is that only 10 - 12% of Australians oppose it as a legal option. There is no social issue in the last 20 years on which public support is higher. By its very nature the issue matters most to those of us over 50. We are either confronting illness ourselves or we have had the experience of caring for relatives who might not have had a comfortable death. In my research, I've witnessed fi rst hand the overwhelming support publicly, politically, and medically that exists in countries where these laws are already in effect. Unfortunately, many politicians in Australia have not educated themselves suffi ciently to understand how such laws work and why repeated independent inquiries have found them to work safely in jurisdictions where they do exist. STAND UP AND ASSERT YOUR RIGHTS To change this requires what change usually requires, namely, for enough people to stand up and assert their rights. By that I don't mean a "right to die". As one Dutch doctor said to me, "death is not a right, death is a fact at the end of life". It's time for your local state MP to know what you want. Your experience and your wisdom will carry huge weight, and it will make it very hard to ignore this issue if you show in numbers that it matters to you – and why. At Go Gentle Australia, we believe this issue sits above politics. Whatever a politician's personal preferences are, he or she has a duty to respect your right to have a choice. Change won't happen without you, and you have the power to make it happen. If you live in Victoria and you want to make your voice heard, please go to our campaign website www. stopvictorianssuffering.org.au. Alternatively you can contact us via email or phone: email contact@ gogentleaustralia.org.au, mobile 0468 464 360. Our campaign already has strong support from a broad cross-section of our community, including nurses, doctors, lawyers, those who've lost loved ones to a painful death, and people living with debilitating degenerative diseases such as MS, MND and Huntington's Disease. In the end it's your choice. Many people who qualify for life-ending medication do not use it. It's there if they want it. Just knowing it is there gives people a sense of control, and this in itself is a huge comfort both to us and to those we love. And if we don't act to bring about the law we want then we suffer the consequences – literally. "Can I have an injection now?" Betty asked her very dedicated G.P. at her bedside - "No" was the answer (Current Medical Practice is not allowed to do this.) "Can I have an injection now?" Betty then asked when the lovely palliative care nurse visited – "No" was the answer again (Victorian Palliative Care is not legally allowed to do this) "I have had enough and want it to be all over!" said Betty "Can I stop eating/drinking then?" Betty asked as she lay emaciated and confi ned to her bed with terminal end stage pancreatic cancer. "Yes" was the answer but it still took her a few weeks of decline until she eventually died. Betty Ogle - 84 yrs and pro-euthanasia W I T H A N D R E W D E N T O N Andrew Denton Andrew Denton is one of Australian media's genuinely creative forces with a career covering radio, television and fi lm. He is the creator of the podcast series Better Off Dead, investigating why good people die bad deaths in Australia and is the founder of Go Gentle Australia. Website gogentleaustralia.org.au ABOUT By THE RETIREE 45 Winter 2017