To the Federal Minister as addressed: ……………………………………

Dear Sir/Madam,

Reference: Impending Legislation January 6, 2006

Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences Act 2005

“Dying is a very dull dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing to do with it” so Somerset Maugham is reputed to have said. 

Unfortunately, for all of us, we have no choice in the matter of dying. What we do have, is choice about the manner of our dying. I am asking for the right to have choice when it comes to mine.

Currently I know of no Minister who has been affected or afflicted by a terminal illness (eg cancer) or a “hopeless” illness (eg multiple sclerosis), or similar misfortunes, so you may not have any clear understanding of where I am placed, in my consternation at the upcoming legislation.

At least one Minister has first hand knowledge of the devastation caused by serious illness of a loved one, but, only from an observer’s POV. One could not wish the pain and suffering on their worst enemy but it really is a case of “until you’ve walked in my shoes” please don’t judge me. Every experience is different for the individual. Your ability to cope may not be mine.

There are, in addition, Ministers directly responsible for the implementation of a law which will make me, personally, a criminal. I am a middle aged woman unrenowned for anything whatsoever, having rarely broken a Law of any description, be it a Traffic Infringement, Cheating the Taxation Department, or Robbing a Bank. I try to live a full life without participating in crime.

But come next week, I will surely be testing the new laws with my web site diary situated on www.yourchoiceindying.com, unless all the assurances given at the Public Senate Hearing actually come to fruition. I have tried to reassure people that short of giving prescription type instructions on the internet, we as Voluntary Euthanasia advocates will not be prosecuted if only because Australia is still, in the short term anyhow, a democracy. 

Talking of methods of suicide, I will repeat in the future that jumping off tall buildings can kill you, but, it has to be tall enough. That throwing an electric heater into your bath can kill you, if the switch is on!...That hanging (for us) is the most common choice, of the 2300 suicides in Australia...

I believe the Legislation is actually quite overkill, and impossible to police, unless you intend to prosecute thousands of elderly, frail and very sick people. I am not quite elderly, frail or very sick at the moment, but give me time. 

My time for dying will come, but then, so will yours. Please reconsider the implications of this legislation if only for yourselves, eventually and in due course. 

For many it is a case of “He is alive, but only in the sense that he cannot be legally buried”.

Mary Walsh
January 6, 2006

Attached: personal (not a business!) card

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