- LETTER TO CAREN JENNING 02/01/06 -

Ill-thought-out suicide law censors a generation

 Sydney Morning Herald
January 2, 2006

I am 73 and have breast cancer that has now spread to other parts of my body. I am a long- standing member of various voluntary euthanasia groups including Exit International, Philip Nitschke's group.

I have been following the letters on the internet censorship bill that comes into effect on January 6. This bill effectively prevents people from using a "carriage service" - the phone, email, fax or internet - to talk about end-of-life options.

This legislation is set to affect me in a very direct way. Soon I will not be able to use the telephone to talk to my doctors about my illness and what it means for me; I cannot talk about doses of medication (in case this is construed as inciting me to take matters into my own hands, something I admit I'm quite keen on, given what lies ahead, through this wretched cancer); I cannot talk to Dr Nitschke, who has been most frank and honest in answering my questions about how I might end my life while I still have my dignity. Without the phone and e-mail, my life lines, I am lost.

In my 70-odd years I have discovered the implications of feminism and seen the rise and fall of the Communist Party. But I have never seen the type of censorship and restriction that is now being placed upon ordinary Australians wanting access to ordinary information.

Those who made this law - the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) Act 2005 - say teenagers need to be protected from suicide; they say the present suicide rate is disturbing, and they are right. But why should the elderly and terminally ill be the victims of the Government's zeal?

This ill-thought-out law is a censoring of an entire generation's right to assembly, our right to free speech and our right to access information about our end-of-life choices.

So, on January 6, I plan to email as many politicians as I can. I want to use a carriage service to discuss my end-of-life options with as many MPs as possible, and I encourage my generation to do the same.

The Government says that it cares for its elderly and that it has nothing but respect for its senior citizens. Driving discussion of end-of-life issues under the carpet makes its talk cheap and its promises shallow.

Caren Jenning, Woollahra

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