- FROM JUDY DENT 08/02/08 (from a contributor) -


NT news - Euthanasia debate is `pointless'

To the Editor:

I am disappointed with Paul Henderson's reaction to Bob Brown's proposed bill but I am more disappointed with the misleading headline in today's article by Nick Calacouras "Wife doubts public acceptance"

I have no doubt at all about public acceptance - it is the politicians who do not accept the wishes of their constituents. Polls (even your own mini-poll) show the majority of Australians agree with voluntary euthanasia (VE). It should be an available choice.

Palliative care has indeed improved over the last decade but the desire for the option of VE is still here. It is not an either/or situation.

Both palliative care and VE should be in place.

I would like to hear just one politician say, "I am completely against VE, but my constituents want the choice so I vote in favour of this VE bill." We elect the members of Parliament to represent us, not to be our consciences. (I said also, "If they DON'T take note of the public during the debate, then it is all over." - leaving out that 'don't' makes a lot of difference to the meaning.)

In addition to being president of the NT VE Society, I am also a member of Palliative Care NT and of Friends of Darwin Hospice. I have those choices now. I would also like to have choices if/when I become terminally ill.

Senator Brown may represent interference from Canberra to the current NT government but it is interference designed to undo the previous interference thrust upon us in 1997.



Judy Dent


http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/02/07/3293_ntnews.html

Euthanasia debate is `pointless'

NICK CALACOURAS

07Feb08

THE wife of the first man to die under the Territory's euthanasia laws said revisiting the mercy killing debate would be a waste of time.

Judy Dent said she appreciated Greens Senator Bob Brown's proposed Bill to again legalise euthanasia in the Territory -- but doubted it would ever get to a vote.

She was disappointed Chief Minister Paul Henderson said the Territory needed to revisit the debate.

"If they think they can have the debate among themselves, we're not going to get anywhere,'' she said.

"If they take note of the public during the debate, then it is all over.''

Her 66-year-old husband Bob (pictured), who was dying of prostate cancer, was the first person to make use of the laws sanctioning assisted suicide in September 1996.

Federal Parliament voted to overturn the law six months later.

Latest polling reveals 80 per cent of Australians support the right to die.

"There are a lot of people who might not want to die, but want the right to use euthanasia,'' Ms Dent said.

"In Oregon, only a small percentage of people who get the drugs use them -- they just like the comfort of having it in their cabinet.''

Mrs Dent said her husband's decision to die was not as difficult as the paperwork it involved.

Her husband required the signatures of his treating doctor, a specialist in his terminal disease and a psychiatrist.

Mrs Dent has been president of the Northern Territory Voluntary Euthanasia society for a decade -- "despite the fact that we haven't been able to do anything''.

"There are thousands of people who belong to voluntary euthanasia societies around the country,'' she said.

Mrs Dent said her only regret was not being able to discuss their decision with family and friends.

"Bob wanted to keep it all quiet until after the funeral,'' she said.

"Unfortunately, it leaked out to the media after three days, so I needed to ask the police for security at the funeral.''

 

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