- LETTER TO STEVE BRACKS, CARETAKER VICTORIAN PREMIER 03/11/06 -

For your information:

Various Members of the caretaker Government as addressed: The advertised documentary straddles the election date so it may be an opportune time to listen to a representative group of voters, who stand for change to the current Medical Treatment Act 1988.

Caretaker Premier: Steve Bracks & others

Comprehensive details are now available on the main page of my website, to the right - (it may take a little time to load up being a PDF file) Named, Do Not Resuscitate, the SBS Documentary, is screening November 23rd & 30th. http://www.donotresuscitatedocumentary.com gives an abbreviated version. Best described as powerful, I feel SBS showed great faith in the ability of the Director and those involved in its production to screen over two weeks, a rare treat.

Thursday November 2. 2006 (late afternoon)

Letter published in the Sun Herald: November 1, 2006 is the perfect example of why people will continue to take matters into their own hands. It happens when Governments fail to support individual's end of life choices because of incompetence to take control away from the conservatives and give back to the majority of voters who have consistently been polled in favour of euthanasia within guidelines. As Mr Morris says: Dear Politicians, please listen (and then in the case of Victoria ), act!....

Mr Brack's Victorian Government promised they'd listen and then act. 73% plus Mr. Bracks! What do you consider a majority voice to be heard above that of your personal belief system which should not impinge on Government Business for the people?. All people - which includes Atheists, Agnostics and a great range of differences in between. I'm one of them.

Any person at end of life stage should be able to have access to Nembutal without having to break the law to achieve a good death. Suicide is not a crime - it is just so hard to achieve peace and serenity of VE for the frail elderly, without access to a medically assisted death. Please upgrade the Medical Treatment Act 1988 in keeping with your voters wishes.

Let us choose death over a degrading disease

My wife Julie and I, both over 80, were profoundly moved by this week's heart-wrenching Four Corners program about Alzheimer's (which will be repeated at 11.35 tonight).

We invite politicians who were watching to please answer some questions.
We believe in euthanasia. However, Christians who oppose it tell us we must await God's will. Do you really believe God wills many of us to spend our last years with the wretchedly degrading Alzheimer's?

Some Christians oppose euthanasia because they believe, like Mother Teresa, that suffering can be ennobling. Would you find it ennobling to spend your last years in a nursing home, completely estranged from your loved ones, unable to control your bladder or bowels?

It was stated that one in four of those reaching 85 is affected by Alzheimer's. Since both of us have, in recent months, experienced some memory loss - minor as yet - and since I have already had a mini stroke, it is quite on the cards that one, or both of us, will finish up with the accursed problem. And then what? Another five or even 10 years in a nursing home, at enormous expense to taxpayers?

Dear politicians, which would you prefer? To spend many thousands keeping us unwillingly alive in a semi-vegetative state or instead to spend the same amount of money improving our schools? You've chosen the latter? Splendid! As former teachers, we salute you. Don't worry for a second about prolonging our lives. Instead, please have the courage to defy religious lobbying and legalise euthanasia, thus permitting us to die in our own home, at a time of our own choosing.

Years ago I wrote some lines which we both believe express exactly how we would like to make our quietus:

My darling Julie, my dear friend,
Now this is how I'd like to end,
If, when we're old, we're both in pain
And know we won't get well again,
In our own home, to Bach divine,
We'll drink a farewell glass of wine
And, arms entwined, we'll end our days
To sounds of Sheep may safely graze.
Yes, in our own bed will we lie,
Take Nembutal, and sweetly die.

Thursday November 2 2006 later the same day:

Inquest told dose too high

Julia Medew
November 1, 2006
Dr Carl Grace arrives at the Geelong Coroners Court for the inquest on his patient Irene Bryant.

A 59-YEAR-OLD Geelong woman was allegedly prescribed an excessive dose of morphine by her doctor five days before she was found dead in her home, an inquest has heard.

The Geelong Coroners Court heard yesterday that Irene Bryant's doctor, Carl Grace, prescribed on January 3, 2002, 100 milligrams of morphine to be taken twice daily. Mrs Bryant was found dead in her Newtown home five days later.

Dr David Soo, who worked with Dr Grace in 2002, told coroner Ronald Saines that the dose was "very excessive" for a 63-kilogram woman who had not taken the drug before.

"My opinion is that this dose was a very excessive dose of morphine for someone who had not had morphine before," he said.

Dr Soo, who had previously prescribed Mrs Bryant Panadeine Forte for her back pain, said he would have started her on 10 milligrams twice daily as per the pharmaceutical guidelines for someone who had not taken morphine or similar narcotics before.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine director Stephen Cordner said he believed Mrs Bryant died from a combination of morphine and another pain killer tramadol, and inflammation of the heart muscle.

The court heard Mrs Bryant had attended Dr Grace's practice in Ryrie Street , Geelong , 41 times between May 2001 and January 2002. A report tendered to the court showed she suffered from depression and back pain and had been prescribed 14 different medications in the two weeks before her death, including five painkillers, a sedative, anti-psychotic medication, antibiotics and a steroid.

While Mrs Bryant had been to Geelong Hospital complaining of chest pain that was radiating down her left arm eight days before she died, physical examinations and other tests could not explain her complaints.

A urine sample taken on January 4, 2002, and a blood sample taken the following day revealed bacteria in her system.

Con Heliotis , QC , for Dr Grace, said Mrs Bryant had attempted suicide several times, usually with a drug overdose.

The possibility of suicide as a cause of death had been "under assessed", he said, and he would pursue this question.

While it was difficult for toxicologist Olaf Drummer to determine how much of the morphine Mrs Bryant had taken, 14 100-milligram capsules of morphine were found to be missing at the time of death, when only nine should have been taken.

The inquest continues.

"Choice Footnote": Like my original diagnosis, given as constipation but in reality was ovarian cancer! The doctor is only capable of working with the information provided, from verbal responses and tests.

Mary Walsh

www.yourchoiceindying.com
 

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