- THE MEDIA -
ABC Sunday Profile
Killing me softly: Dr Philip Nitschke.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Presenter: Monica Attard
Tonight, Dr Philip Nitschke gives us a rare insight into the grim realities of assisted suicide.
He’s one of the world’s leading advocates of voluntary euthanasia. Dr Nitschke has helped a number of people to die but he could never be accused of being cavalier about his work.
He speaks candidly about the harrowing process of killing a patient. It’s clearly taken a very personal toll on him, but it hasn’t altered his determination to see euthanasia legalized in Australia.
He’s running against Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews in the federal seat of Menzies to bring attention to that politician’s role in having the Northern Territory’s legislation which permitted euthanasia overturned.
Dr Nitschke believes it’s only a matter of time before it’s once again lawful to choose the time and manner of our deaths because, he says, aging baby-boomers will demand no less.
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I began by asking him about how he feels about the tag “Dr Death”.
PHILIP NITSCHKE: It irks one a bit. It doesn’t pay to get too precious about name-calling. The issues are much bigger than that. You can’t expect you’re going to have a really soft ride. People will always do what they can to discredit and I guess name-calling is one of the easier things to deal with.
There’s a lot of things that go on that you’re not happy with too and I can deal with name-calling.
MONICA ATTARD: Why are you so passionate about voluntary euthanasia?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I didn’t like what happened and I don’t like losing…I saw our piece of legislation that was, I think, very innovatively and wisely brought in in the Northern Territory and it was a world first.
And to watch it just destroyed by the federal system and the arguments that were run to try and undermine it and to discredit it. A law that actually by the time they did overturn it in 1997, eight months after it had started to be in operation, had worked well and four people had achieved a very humane and peaceful death and ended their suffering in the way they wanted.
To see that overturned by the likes of Kevin Andrews and various other politicians on both sides of the major parties. And to use an anomaly in the constitutional system that the territory is a territory and not a state really upset me and now since that time I’ve just been inundated with people who are, people who would’ve benefited from such a piece of legislation.
Now they’re trapped in this jungle out there, this legal jungle, with difficulties and we try to work out what we can do and I guess that would make anyone passionate about it.
MONICA ATTARD: Now you assisted in those four deaths, did you not, in the Northern Territory?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yeah, the laws said I could’ve come along and sat there and given them, each of those four people who used the law, a lethal injection. As it was, I connected them to the little machine that I built and they pressed the button and the machine itself delivered the lethal drugs.
But I had to first of all set the machine up and then I had to be in the room, so in that sense, it wouldn’t have happened unless I was able to be there. Having got the law passed it was then up to me to make it work and the only four people to use it were four of my patients.
MONICA ATTARD: So how did that moment affect you?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Ah, it was very difficult. You wouldn’t forget it. They were four extremely difficult days, the days leading up to the day when the person had chosen (to) make use of the option which they had now obtained, were difficult, stressful days.
I couldn’t sleep, worried about things. People said “Oh well, you were worried because of the fact that you’re breaking some fundamental law.” But it was nothing like that.
The worry that came was from the responsibility, the worry that something might go wrong. You were by yourself. You knew that when you went to that person’s room, the expectation was pretty crippling.
There was a…you knew you had to be able to go there and by the time you left, that person had to have had a peaceful death.
And the fact that you’re by yourself with no-one, it would’ve been better if I had been accompanied by someone, I think. And each of those times my overwhelming feeling when the, when everything went well, if you like, we were able to talk about things; to connect the machine up; the machine worked; the person died, usually in three of the four cases, held by the people that loved them and they died peacefully and to see them achieve what they wanted and relief on the faces of those that loved them, to be present.
My overwhelming feeling was one of gratitude that everything had gone well.
MONICA ATTARD: So when you say that there’s a great burden because you’re the only one there, you’re the only medico there, were you frightened?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I don’t know whether I was fearful so much as anxious. Anxiety about the fact that something might go wrong.
The very first time with Bob Dent, he said “Come around on Sunday. I’ve decided Sunday is the day to die. I want to die about two o’clock.” He said, “Can you come around for lunch beforehand?”
And I remember feeling very chilled at the time and that was about Wednesday when he told me. I didn’t do much sleeping from that time. I went around there around midday. Couldn’t eat my food and everything. You tried to talk about didn’t seem to make much sense.
You run every sentence you’re about to say past yourself and you edit it and you decide it’s not worth saying. Everything has some future component and so you just don’t say it. These are very, very difficult times.
I can only imagine that it’s obviously is something like what people go through leading up to an execution and it’s very, very hard going. The fact that he wanted it makes it…there are still aspects of it that do make you feel like it’s one of the grim situations.
And I found myself covered in sweat. My shirt was drenched in sweat and I didn’t know why and my mouth was so dry I couldn’t eat my sandwich.
Now I understand all those things. This is the anxiety associated with it.
MONICA ATTARD: In those moments, when you were sitting there, having lunch with somebody who was about to die, did that give you pause to question whether, in fact, morally you were doing the right thing?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I had plenty of opportunity to question it and I did question it. Having said that I questioned it, I was never in any doubt. Those periods didn’t make me feel any more doubtful. The fact that I was having such a hard time of it didn’t really make me question the concept.
I had worked hard for him to have this option. I knew that I would want this option and that’s why I was involved in it in the first place. So I was annoyed that the medical profession had set out to try and undermine the law to try and wreck it.
They made it quite clear, the Australian Medical Association did, that they would do everything they could to make sure this law never functioned. And yet I knew full well that if I was in the position that Bob Dent or any of the other four were in, that I would want this choice.
I may not want to take it but I would want to know that that option was there.
Now to say that you’ve got a choice, you then got to make sure the option is there. Having passed the law, Marshall Perrin more or less said to me at that point, “Well, now I guess it’s up to you. We’ve got the law through but it has to work.”
It almost nearly didn’t. The first person who came to Darwin to use the law was a taxi driver from Broken Hill called Max Bell and he…I couldn’t get any doctor to cooperate, couldn’t get his papers signed. He was dying of stomach cancer in a most grim way but in the end he gave up in despair, went back to Broken Hill and died back in the Broken Hill Base Hospital.
And the doctors almost were gloating in the Territory saying “look”, I got rung up from the head of the College of Physicians who said to me “Look, you’ve got your law but it’s never going to work.” And so the feeling that I had to make sure it did work was really to show we had here something that was really quite special and was quite effective.
But that meant an awful lot of running around. Ultimately it meant that someone had to be prepared to go along and make it happen. Now, I don’t think it’s a task that anyone would want to do.
One of the reasons I built the little machine was because I didn’t want to sit there and give a lethal injection. I don’t know anyone who’d want to do that. So, the idea of the machine gave me that little bit of distance, it allowed me to get on the other side of the room.
It also allowed people that loved them to be in that immediate personal space. But they were difficult times and I wasn’t questioning the right or wrong of this. I was never in doubt that this was the right thing to do but I was certainly finding it hard going.
MONICA ATTARD: It’s ten years since the act was overturned by the Federal Government. Have you ever thought, in that period of time, given the enormous emotional impact of helping people to kill themselves, you know, you really ought to walk away from it?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I wouldn’t mind walking away from it if I felt we got somewhere. I don’t feel like walking away from it now that we’re worse of than we were ten years ago. That’s unfortunately the situation. Not only have we seen the Territory’s legislation overturned, we’ve had the passage of subsequent pieces of legislation by this Federal Government, very proactive it is in time to remove end-of-life choices.
Passage of two subsequent pieces of law that the…banning of my book and the rest of it. Everything has become more and more difficult in Australia.
MONICA ATTARD: We’ll come to that, your book, The Peaceful Pill Handbook, in a moment. But can I ask you, in this point of time, when euthanasia is illegal in this country, you continue to help people kill themselves, don’t you?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yes, well I have to be careful about that…
MONICA ATTARD: How do you manage to evade prosecution?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, hopefully by being careful. The law is pretty unhelpful. What it says is, is that suicide is lawful. They then go on to say, this is the legislation, to advise, counsel or assist is in fact unlawful. It can attract the most savage of penalties.
What we’re affectively saying to people is sure you can go out and kill yourself but you can’t get any advice, counselling or assistance, so that no-one can give you information. And what we try to do, what I try to do, what our organization Exit tries to do is to give people that information.
The argument then revolves around whether or not the giving of good information actually constitutes advising, counseling or assisting, so does it fall under the auspices of this prohibition on the advise, counsel or assist of the suicide legislation which is currently in place.
MONICA ATTARD: And does it?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, it hasn’t been tested yet. There have been four attempts by the Australian Medical Association to claim that I should be disciplined for running workshops where we do give information.
Our argument is, and so far it’s held up, and I hope it continues to but it’s right on the edge, is that you give information but you’re not advising people to do anything. What you’re doing though, is empowering people by giving them access to information.
I mean, to say to someone “You can suicide but you can’t get any information about it” is absolutely cruel. What you’re doing is there is casting them out, letting them flounder about with no access to information and that of course leads to this most damning statistic which I, if I was a politician, would be mortified by and that is, the commonest method used by the over-75s to end their life in Australia today, 2007, is by hanging themselves.
That’s the commonest method used. And the reason for that is straightforward: you don’t have to find out any information, rope’s available, they can’t ban rope. I’m sure they’d probably want to if they could. And people take that grim method because they can’t get access to good information.
Now, I’m ashamed of that but this is what Australia has done. It’s forced us into this situation and I suppose the likes of Kevin Andrews and politicians like him feel pleased with it. But I don’t feel very happy about it.
MONICA ATTARD: But a terminally ill patient wouldn’t have that option?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, plenty of terminally ill patients hang themselves. If you’re suggesting that you’re so sick that you can’t do that, that’s true, people do get trapped. And then of course we get into the other nightmare scenario which we see happening more and more and that is when someone is so ill that they can’t affect an end themselves, they have to go to someone they love, their wife or husband or son or daughter, and say “Will you please help me?”
And that’s of course the situation we’re seeing now in the law courts. One of these scenarios has been playing out in the Sydney courts at present.
Then, if they love someone, (they) do try to take steps to give that person what they want, that is, access to a peaceful death and they run right into the advising, counselling and assisting. So if you have your husband say to you “Look, I’m too sick, can you please help me.” and you decide to act on that request and you do get on a plane and you fly overseas and you come back with your bottle of Nembutal and you give it to that person, apart from running the risk of the customs prohibitions, which might be relatively trivial compared to the legal risk you’re running if you’re ever discovered or proved that you did give that drug to your husband, you could be looking at the next 15 years in Long Bay…
MONICA ATTARD: So for you then it comes down to the difference between assisting people to do, and advising them how to do it. That’s the legal corridor you operate in at the moment.
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yes, I mean, I don’t go getting on aeroplanes and flying overseas and bringing drugs back for people. But we do try to give accurate information on how that’s possible. So that’s one of the problems…
MONICA ATTARD: So, if a terminally ill patient shows you a handful of pills and asks “is that enough to kill me?” and you answer “yes”, that’s what, is that assisting or advising?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: That’s a difficult one. That happens a lot. I always answer those questions but I’m also aware, as many doctors are, that they’re in a no-win situation here. Is giving that information advising or isn’t it? And again it’s right on the edge. Obviously if I prescribe the tablets and say “Take these, you’ll die” then that’s clearly assisting.
But if someone says “Look, I’ve stockpiled all these tablets. I’ve got all the (inaudible) morphine tablets here. Have I got enough to kill myself?” You look at the tablets and you say yes or no, are you advising? Many people would say you are, many doctors won’t do it…
MONICA ATTARD: What do you think? What do you say?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I tread carefully, I explain the law to people and then I try to answer their question.
MONICA ATTARD: So in that situation you would say yes, that number of pills will kill you.
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yes.
MONICA ATTARD: I think you were asked this question by my colleague, George Negus, when he worked for the ABC. In the situation where a terminally ill patient showed you a large bottle of pills and said “Dr Nitschke, would that number of pills kill me?” and you said “Yes” and they were too weak to open the bottle, would you open the bottle?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: What we would normally say in those situations is say “Look, let’s see who can open that bottle for you. Who loves you enough to open that bottle? Who do you know?” – and I often ask this question to other people, I probably asked it of George and I guess I could ask it of you – “How many people do you know prepared to risk 20 years in jail to help you?”
And the answer is usually, when people start off thinking about this, they don’t get a lot of names on the sheet of white paper. And effectively this patient is saying to me “I want you to risk 20 years in jail to help me.”
And my usual answer to that is “I don’t do that for people. Let’s find someone prepared to take that risk. And if we can’t find someone who is prepared to take that risk, you might have just left it too late”.
And that’s why we run these workshops now where we say to people “For goodness sake, organize yourself, get yourself set up so you don’t have to ask someone to assist you.”
In practice, of course, the opening of a bottle of pills is something you’re probably going to get away with. One looks at each situation on its own merit. You’re not asking a huge amount there, really to loosen a bottle of tablets.
But generally speaking we do try to say to people and the majority of our members are 75, they’re well, and we say to them “For goodness sake, while you are well and organized get yourself set up so you’re not in that position of having to be lying there and having to ask someone who loves you enough, go off and help me – be it by going off to Mexico or be it by running off and telling some story to your doctor to get some suitable drug, or be it by opening the bottle itself – get yourself set up as best you can, while you can so you don’t get in that position”.
I’ve been at the bedside of too many people where there’s…when I say to them “ You are so sick, there’s almost nothing that can be arranged, unless there’s someone prepared to take these legal risks” and then we watch wives and husbands and sons and daughters looking at the ceiling, looking at the floor and finally someone might say “Don’t ask me to do that, Dad.” And I’ve seen that situation a bit too often.
MONICA ATTARD: Others have of course gone to jail for doing what you do, overseas. Do you ever contemplate of that going to jail for this cause as you see, is something you would be prepared to do?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I’m very keen not to do that. I’ve not the slightest interest in spending time in prison, for all sorts of good reasons. And so one tries to be wise enough not to get into that difficulty. And it’s awkward.
The safest thing to do is always to do nothing. It’s always a lot safer. And your chances of going to prison when you do nothing is zero, so, I guess, we’re strongly encouraged in our society to sit on our armchairs and do nothing.
And then we have to put up with what we’ve got and that means putting up with the status quo and the status quo currently in Australia in end-of-life choices is dreadful. We’ve got a mess out there. I call it a jungle. If you’re luck, if you’ve got access to resources, if you’re rich, that helps.
You can sometime access some good choices but most people are caught up in this mess and, so, I want to see it change. Now…
MONICA ATTARD: Do you think euthanasia will ever be legalized in Australia?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yeah, I have no doubt about it.
MONICA ATTARD: Really?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Since the Northern Territory, the Northern Territory was first in the world and that’s amazing and since that time there’s Oregon, there’s Holland, there’s Belgium, there’s Switzerland and there’s going to be other countries and as we see this whole cohort of baby-boomers head through to their twilight years, these are people used to getting their way.
They’re not just going to sit back and have someone pat them on the head and say “
There, there, there, let us – let the medical profession, that is- do the worrying for you.” They would want to have that choice and they want to have that power and they know how to get it. So it will happen and this sort of action being taken by what I would describe as the politicians who are really acting out the role of the religious right in our society and taking such notice of it - there’s a lot of them on both sides of parliament - ultimately, I think, are going to lose this one.
But I guess they’re fighting a pretty good rearguard action at this stage. They’ve successfully scuttled the Territory law and as I said they’ve passed several other bits of legislation, making it more and more difficult.
Australia now leads the world in going backwards on this issue…
MONICA ATTARD: So what will it take then, Dr Nitschke?.
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Time, I guess. I think there’s going to have to be the passage of some time and some organization. Increasingly proactive and aggressive strategies.
I see civil disobedience actions by groups of elderly folk who are simply saying “We are going to take control of this issue. We’re not going to be pushed around by politicians who are running their own private, personal, religious and moral agenda.” That “This is something that I want. It’s my personal right and I’ll simply have to take it.”
There’s going to be some casualties in that. There’s going to have to be some people who do pay a significant price, I suspect, as with any social movement which is significant, there’s going to be a fight.
And I think we’re going to win.
MONICA ATTARD: Do you think there is any degree of political support for it?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Oh yes, yes…
MONICA ATTARD: You do?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: When you look at the major parties, it’s not hard to see why they find such trouble with this issue. Both of them have significant pockets within them of people who will never support this and they will not engage in any discussion on it, an issue that’s going to lead to any sort of split.
And that’s the ALP and the conservatives. They won’t touch it. Amongst the Greens and Democrats, there’s not much difficulty. The Democrats have been very forceful on this issue. They’re going to have no power. So you’re left with these two parties that won’t touch this issue.
Nevertheless, the number of people out there who want change are quite high. So, the way that’s going to translate into any political action is a bit hard to see but it’s going to happen. In the meantime, though, we focus in most of our activities and endeavours now at Exit to do with, kind of, providing people with personal strategies.
In a way, if you’ve got access to personal strategies, you don’t care if there’s a law or not. None of the four people who used the legislation in the Northern Territory would have bothered to go through the rather exhaustive steps to demonstrate eligibility had they had a bottle of Nembutal in the cupboard.
Why would you bother? Why would you go off and see a psychiatrist and a specialist and a palliative care expert to have your signatures if you had that bottle of drug in the cupboard. You’d simply go to the cupboard when the time was right, do as they do in Switzerland, pour it into a glass, drink it down, go to sleep within a few minutes and die within an hour.
MONICA ATTARD: Let’s talk about your decision to run as an Independent at the Federal Election against Kevin Andrews, the Immigration Minister. Why him?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: It was his bill that was supposedly a private member’s bill that went through Federal Parliament with the prominent support of Kim Beazley and John Howard.
So, Kevin Andrews put his name to it. He makes it very clear that he’s completely opposed to issue and would do all he can to make sure that these laws would never surface again. So, in a sense, he’s nailed his colours to the mast. He becomes the focus, and so we’ll focus on him.
MONICA ATTARD: He surely wouldn’t have been alone…
PHILIP NITSCHKE: He wasn’t alone, that’s right.
MONICA ATTARD: But you’re targeting him because it’s his private member’s bill.
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yeah. I also am well aware he does all he can these days to hope that the voters in Doncaster and Templestowe and the like and east of Melbourne there, don’t remember what the role that he played because he’s well aware, as most politicians are, of what the polls continue to show on this issue.
Most people want change on this issue and it gets polled a lot. For example, Morgan does the poll every two years. They always ask the same question. They’ve asked the same question since the early 60s that if you’re suffering, no hope of recovery, do you think you should be able to get lawful help to die – if you asked that question out on the streets of Sydney today you’ll get 75 per cent support for it.
It’s always the same. It’s been like it for something like 25 years. It rose steeply from 50: 50 in the 60s and it’s plateaued ever since. Most people want change. That doesn’t mean they’re going to change their vote over it, lying awake at night worrying about it. They have got support for the issue.
The fact that it doesn’t fall on the left or right of politics means it’s not the natural domain of the left or the right so as I said earlier, we’ve got these pockets in both parties who will never support it. So, it doesn’t easily lend itself to political change.
It was Gough Whitlam who said to me once, his word were, “Don’t expect politicians to stand up on this issue” and his words be railed (phonetic) at the pulpit at pre-selection time. Politicians will not take on an issue which sees them being portrayed as anti-church.
For various reasons it doesn’t go far politically. But nevertheless I think it’s worth reminding the voters of Doncaster that their elected representative in this blue-ribbon seat has a very particular –and I would suggest – undemocratic attitude to this particular issue.
MONICA ATTARD: But a lot of politicians, do they not, put their personal convictions at the forefront of their minds when they’re making policy decisions. Is there anything that’s necessarily wrong with that?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, I guess that’s true. Well, I think what they should do…well, this came up when we started talking about a conscience vote. It was a conscience vote in Federal Parliament.
People started saying, “Hey, hang on, whose conscience is this? Is this the conscience of the electorate or the conscience of the politician?” Of course, the politicians said “Oh well, it’s the conscience of the politician.”
Everyone noted the quote, Edmund Burke, about how politicians have to use their skill to know what’s best for the community…
MONICA ATTARD: What’s wrong with that?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I find it pretty offensive. I don’t particularly want my politician to start making, to start telling me that they’re going to vote according to their own particular personal…
MONICA ATTARD: So, if you win that seat, as an independent, you’re going to put your personal convictions, your personal beliefs in voluntary euthanasia, legalized voluntary euthanasia, to one side, are you?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: No, I’m going to see what the electorate says.
MONICA ATTARD: Really?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yes! It’s not that hard to do. I can find out what the electorate says and I know what the electorate is going to say. And in fact many people have tried to do that on an issue that comes up for a conscience vote. People actually do try to find out what the electorate think.
It happened with stem cell research, where some politicians went out and tried to find out what their electorate thought, rather than simply saying “Oh, well, conscience vote means I can do what I like.”
No it doesn’t. It means you’ve got to start looking at what the actual members of your electorate think.
MONICA ATTARD: So you’re not going to be out there campaigning on the basis that you’re the country’s staunchest and most high-profile believer in voluntary euthanasia?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: I’m going to be campaigning on that view because I know that’s what the people of Doncaster are going to support on that issue. So that’s why I’m going to be able to say that with conviction when I go down there to stand as a candidate.
MONICA ATTARD: So your personal conviction will be informing your political movement?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yes, because that happens to coincide with the wishes of the electorate.
MONICA ATTARD: Yes, but at the same time we’re deriding Kevin Andrews for having…
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Because he doesn’t care what the wishes of the electorate are on this issue.
MONICA ATTARD: Well, how do you know that?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, because he’s ignored them!
MONICA ATTARD: He might have ignored them on one particular issue but he’s not a single issue campaigner, is he?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: No, that’s right. And that’s what I’m going to be telling people about. And I guess many people will be saying, well when we decide who we’re going to vote for in the federal election we can’t just be voting on a person who’s says this about one issue. We have to take a lot of issues into account. There’s questions of greenhouse gases, questions of industrial reform. There’s all sorts of important issues out there and we’ll make our decision ultimately on many issues and that’s the way it should be.
But I’m simply going to be saying, “Well, when you vote for Kevin Andrews just be aware that on this particular issue he has ignored your thoughts on this issue.”
MONICA ATTARD: And, in that sense, do you think you have any hope of winning?
PHILIP NITSCHKE: No, not really, but I wouldn’t say I have no hope of winning but I mean realistically, we’re not, I’m not going down there because I think I have a fair chance of winning, I’m going down there to, I think, take the opportunity to say it’s ten years since we saw the overturning of this Territory law. It’s a federal election and I wanted to just take this opportunity, in this climate, to put this issue on to, whatever small way, the Federal agenda on this election. So, that’s my plan.
MONICA ATTARD: And that was Dr Philip Nitschke. Thanks for listening and thanks to our Sunday Profile Producer, Lorna Knowles and Local Radio Producer, Dan Driscoll. Up next Speaking Out. And I’ll talk to you next week.
The Geelong Advertiser:
Please, we want our dignity
Article by Mex Cooper
22Jun07
IT'S OUR RIGHT: Mary Walsh, left, and Judy Bayliss, in wheelchair, after Wednesday's rally in Melbourne. Photo: REG RYAN (not pictured here) photographed backs with large sign slung over shoulder reading My Right To Die with Dignity...I am walking beside Judy's chair because her friend offered to push it for me back to the carpark.JUDY Bayliss leaned out of her wheelchair and struggled with her fading voice to say what the right to die meant to her: ``everything''.
Behind her, 64-year-old grandmother and voluntary euthanasia activist Mary Walsh pulled her jumper down from her neck to reveal the strength of her convictions tattooed on her skin.
``Do Not Resuscitate. Thank You,'' the bold black words read.
``I can strongly recommend this as a way to go. It's permanent and it's real,'' she said.
The women were among more than 100 protesters at a rally held on Wednesday on the steps of State Parliament calling on politicians to legislate to allow doctors to give lethal prescriptions to terminally ill patients who want to die.
Organised by Dying with Dignity Victoria, the protest was in memory of Steve Guest, the Point Lonsdale man who suicided in 2005 to end his suffering from oesophageal cancer which stripped him of his quality of life.
The snowy-haired crowd, who mocked the youthful stereotype of protesters, were people who felt the breath of mortality on their shoulders. Ms Bayliss more than most.
But it wasn't death they feared it was the loss of control. It was pain that they might not be able to end.
And for Ms Bayliss the ``worst thing''- a decline in her memory and thinking.
Ms Bayliss, a retired schoolteacher, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her early 20s.
Now in her late fifties, she said she suffered bladder and bowel problems, cognitive decline, was emotionally exhausted and cried all the time.
Ms Walsh said her friend was an independent person who increasingly had to rely on carers.
``Her mobility is zilch, her speech is almost zilch, her capacity to hold or write or to talk is zilch,'' Ms Walsh said.
Ms Walsh said her passion to fight for a change in assisted suicide laws _ which currently carry a maximum jail term of 14 years _ began with her mother's slow death after a stroke and was again stoked by her own painful battle with ovarian cancer for which she is now in remission.
Ms Walsh and Ms Bayliss featured in a television documentary with Mr Guest on voluntary euthanasia and said they were at the rally because they wanted the right to choose when and where they died.
``I want my rights,'' Ms Bayliss fought to whisper and hoped the politicians heard.
The Age Newspaper:
Doctor's admission a test for 'opaque' suicide laws
Dr Rodney Syme: laws inadequate.
Carol Nader
June 20, 2007
A MELBOURNE doctor has admitted that he gave terminally ill man Steve Guest medication that may have helped him die, leaving him open to prosecution for assisting suicide.
Vice-president of Dying with Dignity Victoria Rodney Syme, a long-time voluntary euthanasia advocate, has revealed that he gave medication to Mr Guest, who had cancer of the oesophagus and took his own life about two years ago.
"He was asking me for help and I believe that he had very severe suffering which could be relieved by giving him information and medication," Dr Syme told The Age.
Dr Syme said his intent in giving Mr Guest medication was not to help him die but to "palliate" him, that is, relieve Mr Guest's "psychological and existential suffering".
Mr Guest's plight became public when, as "Steve from Point Lonsdale", he told Jon Faine's program on ABC radio in July 2005: "I'm dying an awful death of cancer. I want a pill in the cupboard that I can reach for and take it, and end this nightmare that I'm living at the moment."
In an article published in today's Age, Dr Syme writes that Mr Guest contacted him the day he was first on the radio. He had lost 35 kilograms in nine months and was exhausted.
"In response to his request, I gave him information about barbiturates, of dose and their effects. I gave him medication — to have not done so would have been totally ineffective, and amount to abandonment. Two weeks after I met him, utterly spent, he ended his life with security and dignity."
A police spokeswoman yesterday said there was still an active police investigation and an inquest brief was being prepared for the Coroner.
Dr Syme, who intends to announce his potential role in Mr Guest's death at a rally today, would not reveal what medication he gave Mr Guest and whether the dose was high enough to end his life.
Dr Syme said he was not sure if the medication he gave Mr Guest was what he used to end his life.
He said in making the admission he was testing the law and highlighting what he said were "inadequate and opaque law" that did not protect doctors.
The Geelong Advertiser
Police to review doctor's comments
written by
Mex Cooper
22 June 2007
POLICE will review an investigation into Steve Guest's death following a doctor's admission he prescribed medication that may have helped him die.
Rodney Syme told a public rally on Wednesday that he gave medication to Mr Guest before the 58-year-old committed suicide in his Point Lonsdale home in July, 2005, after a painful battle with oesophageal cancer.
Dr Syme, vice-president of Dying With Dignity Victoria, told protesters he believed prescribing Mr Guest drugs had been a form of palliative care rather than a case of assisted suicide.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Stephen McIntyre said he was unaware until late yesterday that Dr Syme had made further comments about Mr Guest's death.
He said police would follow up exactly what was said.
``We have to take on board what has been said and make decisions as to where it goes from there,'' Det-Sen-Sgt McIntyre said.
Det-Sen-Sgt McIntyre is heading an investigation by the homicide squad into Mr Guest's death at the request of the coroner.
Dr Syme was interviewed about 18 months ago as part of the investigation but told the Geelong Advertiser he had not told police about the prescription.
He refused to disclose the medication or dose involved.
Det-Sen-Sgt McIntyre said prior to Dr Syme's comments this week, the investigation had been due to be completed and a brief of evidence handed to the coroner in the ``next couple of months''.
He said police had not decided whether or not to lay charges and once the brief was completed it was up to the coroner to decide if an inquest was needed.
Assisted suicide carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment but Dr Syme said no doctor had been charged in Victoria in the past 40 years as police turned a blind eye to the consequences of ``utterly opaque'' legislation.
Dr Syme's stance was supported by Labor MP for Mount Waverley and parliamentary secretary for health Maxine Morand, and Liberal MP for Bass Ken Smith.
Mr Smith wants to introduce a private members Bill in State Parliament to enable doctors to prescribe drugs to terminally ill people who want to die.
Article reported in The Senior (Victoria) July 2007 (Page 3)
No intention to aid suicide
I gave dying journalist medication
- Dr Rodney Syme
by MERILYN VALEEXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE - Dr Rodney Syme has been an advocate for medically assisted dying for nearly 20 years. (Apologies, I couldn't include the photo of Dr Syme, but it was a particularly pleasant one of a smiling man at peace with himself)
DR Rodney Syme has admitted he gave Steve Guest medication two weeks before the journalist took his own life two years ago.
Dr Syme does not say what type of medication he gave him.Before his death Mr Guest made a public plea for the law to be changed so that those suffering terribly from disease, with no hope of recovery, would have the right to seek medical assistance to die peacefully on their own terms.
As The Senior went to press, Dr Syme, vice-president of Dying with Dignity Victoria, was due to talk about Mr Guest's death at a public rally on the steps of Parliament in Melbourne.
The rally was being held to commemorate Mr Guest's struggle and demonstrate support for law reform.
Dr Syme spoke with The Senior before the rally and said he was relaxed about what he was saying.
"If a doctor behaves in a way that provides good palliative care to a person, and that is his intention, how can it also be seen as aiding and abetting a suicide?" he asked.
"The question has never been considered. A doctor has never been charged on this matter so really no-one knows the answer to that question.
"I've thought about this for a long time. At first I used to to very concerned, almost paranoid, but the more I've thought about it the more I've come to appreciate my intentions always have been to palliate people.
"It has never been my intention to aid them to suicide. It may have been their intention, but it hat; not been mine and that is a very important point in law.
"Normally all the control lies with a doctor and when you provide the patient with control, that is good medicine."
Dr Syme was interviewed by police in January last year after Mr Guest died and he doesn't know where the investigation has gone since then.He said there still had been no coroner's inquest into the death.
He said the police had told him Mr Guest had died from an overdose of Nembtital - a powerful barbiturate used by vets, but unavailable for human use.
"I have indicated 1 saw Steve Guest a number of times in the two weeks before he died," Dr Syme said.
"He was suffering from oesophageal cancer. He had lost about 35kg in about nine months and was virtually skin and bones.
"He was extremely weak, exhausted and in significant pain from the cancer which had infiltrated his chest wall.
"The pain was alleviated by morphine, but he said he found it like 'a shot of lead into his brain' and he didn't like taking it.
"In my opinion, he was suffering psychological and existential pain and anxiety over the lack of control over the dying process.
"He was fearful of the process of dying becoming prolonged. The prospect of dying in a drugged state was abhorrent to him. He wanted to die with pride, with his mind intact.
"He rang me.
"1 went and saw him and after a prolonged interview it became clear to me his quality of life would be greatly improved by giving him control and that could possibly lengthen his life.
"I gave him advice about barbiturates, their effects and the dosages and the manner of dying in those circumstances because I felt it would have a beneficial effect on him."Dr Syme said he also gave him medication.
"And what was interesting was that he was visibly energised and his purpose in life over the next few weeks improved." he said."He gave interviews in the press and on radio. But eventually he simply became exhausted from his disease and he ended his own life."
Dr Syme has been in medical practice for 45 years, primarily as a urological surgeon.
He has had extensive experience with cancer patients and with people with severe spinal injuries.
He has been an advocate for medically assisted dying for nearly 20 years, and was the president of the Dying With Dignity Victoria for 10 years.
Others expected to speak at the rally were Andrew Guest, Steve's brother, journalist and commentator Terry Lane, and Victorian State politicians Ken Smith and Colleen Hartland.
A good friend sent me this collection of websites dealing with euthanasia, both for and against
However I couldn't help but wondered whether I was the "80 year old" telling the Minister for the Aged he was too young at "31" in item no 98......I know the hair is white and the wrinkles running deep but 80????
Google Blogs Alert for: euthanasia
1 Euthanasia: The Moral Issues
There are very good articles defending the morality of euthanasia: for example,
James Raches does a good job explaining the common argument how passive
euthanasia (refraining from extreme measures to save someone) is no more moral
than ...
About Agnosticism / Atheism:... -
http://atheism.about.com/
2 Sharpton-Jackson
By Mr. Olanoff
Many people remember the most recent televised debate on euthanasia, the Terry
Schiavo case of early 2005. Jesse Jackson appeared there in force, shown
comforting the parents of Schiavo and debating fiercely for her life. ...the fox
chase five -
http://foxchasefive.wordpress.com
4 36 percent of Brazilians support euthanasia By ergo Many
adults in Brazil are opposed to euthanasia, according to a poll by Datafolha
published in Folha de Sao Paulo. 57 per cent of respondents are against allowing
the intentional death of another person in the event of an incurable ...
Assisted-Suicide Blog -
http://assistedsuicide.org/blog
5 “They Need Love, Not Euthanasia”
By Cal Catholic
Euthanasia initiative introduced in the Mexican Senate Full article...
Catholic Answers Forums -
http://forums.catholic.com
7 Dutch Patients Killed Without Requesting Euthanasia By
Abigail Ruth(Abigail Ruth) From "Dutch Euthanasia" by Wes Smith, posted 4/2/07,
at First Things n his book Seduced by Death, Herbert Hendin reported that one
reason the Dutch people have not turned against their euthanasia law is that
doctors and the media in ...
CULTURE CAMPAIGN -
http://culturecampaign.blogspot.com/index.html
8 Forcing All Hospitals To Allow Euthanasia Key Election Plank
of ...
... third jurisdiction in the world after the Netherlands (April 1, 2002) and
the state of ... family life through tax reform and opposes same-sex marriage
and adoption by homosexual partners. VB ...
EIN News: Netherlands Erotica & Sex News -
http://www.einnews.com/netherlands/newsfeed-netherlands-sex-erotica
9 Russia’s Chief Sanitary Inspector calls euthanasia a crime
By Interfax-religion.com Moscow, April 19, Interfax - Gennady Onischenko has
condemned the attempts of some mass media to discuss euthanasia as applied to
our country. “The sleep of reason, which has produced televised monologues on
the need to train doctors ...
News/Activism -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
11 "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia"
By Wesley J. Smith(Wesley J. Smith)
I have a book review of The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia posted on
today's First Things blog. The book is dry, but very good in its discussion of
the legal issues, and not bad in explaining philosophical perspectives. ...
Secondhand Smoke -
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/blogger.html
12 Euthanasia bid woman forced to withdraw case A terminally
ill woman has been forced to abandon a ground-breaking bid to end her own life,
it was announced today. Kelly Taylor, 30, had begun a court case to force
doctors to give her a massive morphine dose which would lead to her ...
Latest Breaking Health News &... -
http://www.health.am/
13 Is Elizabeth May Crazy Like A Fox?
By politiquevert
Not pro-life; Refused to respond; voted for M-123, Svend Robinson’s
pro-euthanasia motion. ...
A Grassroots View of Canadian Politics -
http://politiquevert.wordpress.com
16 Really Unpleasant Things Happen....
By Ruth (Ruth)
"It’s been said, and I think it’s very true, that verbal engineering precedes
all social engineering,”
said Rita Marker, the executive director of the Steubenville, Ohio-based
International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, ...
WHEELIE CATHOLIC -
http://wheeliecatholic.blogspot.com/index.html
20 Flashbacks
The culture of life should not just about abortion or euthanasia. Anyone who
thinks that is all it entails is ignorant. It also includes people's right to be
safe from violence, treated for disease, and not to live in poverty in the ...
Republispin - http://www.republispin.com
21 A Critical Assessment of Euthanasia
The question of whether, say, a man should have the right to take away his life
granted pain and suffering have overcome him is a very important question today.
A different way of putting this question is this: "Should a man have the ...
DietBarn.com - http://www.dietbarn.com/
22 Leading the Flock
By paramedicgirl(paramedicgirl)
Both articles make mention of the fact that the Pope is taking a tough stance on
issues such as not allowing divorced Catholics to fully participate in the
Church, preventing negotiations on abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, ...
Salve Regina -
http://paramedicgoldengirl.blogspot.com/index.html
23 Google, Amazon Help Disseminate Illegal Euthanasia Book By
papijoe(papijoe) THE outlawed euthanasia manual The Peaceful Pill Handbook will
soon be available for download on the internet. Co-author and euthanasia
campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke made a deal with Google Books in the US last week.
...
Marlowe's Shade -
http://marlowesshade.blogspot.com/index.html
24 After 5 Years of "Formal" Euthanasia in the Netherlands,
What Do ...
By Denny(Denny) Smith observes the 5th anniversary of "formal"
euthanasia in the Netherlands and describes how strenuously the authorities (and
the press) work at keeping the true face of euthanasia from the public...like,
for example, ...
Vital Signs Blog -
http://vitalsignsblog.blogspot.com/index.html
25 TEV GIVEAWAY: BOOMSDAY By TEV
With the help of Washington's greatest PR strategist, Cassandra and the
politician try to ride the issue of euthanasia for Boomers (they call it
"Transitioning") all the way to the White House. Their opposition includes the
president of ...
The Elegant Variation -
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/
26 Belgium: Hospitals must provide euthanasia By backhoe
Author: backhoe Posted: 04/ 20/ 07 3:42 am. -Useless Eaters vs The Death Cult--
Free Dominion -
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/index.php
27 Bomb Threats, Protests, Excommunications By Sotto
Voce(Sotto Voce) Same-sex civil unions were approved in Mexico City and Coahuila
state earlier this year, and the country is bracing for a debate in the Senate
on the sensitive issue of euthanasia. Advertisement The social changes stem
partly from ...
CLERICAL WHISPERS -
http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/index.html
28 Publicity for pro-life stand against euthanasia By Fr Tim
Finigan(Fr Tim Finigan) The article is headed, We'll fight backdoor euthanasia
and risk jail say doctors and it is good to see two great pro-life Catholic
doctors quoted:. Philip Howard, a London gastroenterology consultant, said that
he would not withdraw or ...
The hermeneutic of continuity -
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/index.html
29 Swiss court ruling allows euthanasia for mentally ill By
childrenbipolar Wow… This could also aid you Scotland on Sunday Online
- The case was brought by a 53-year-old man with serious bipolar affective
disorder who asked the tribunal to allow him to acquire a lethal dose of
pentobarbital without a doctor’s ...
-
http://childrenbipolar.eblogworldreport.com
31 Video - Fr. Elias - Clearing the Air about Euthanasia By
apostolate Elias clears the air on the true nature of euthanasia and the
obligation we all have to provide the ordinary means of sustenance for the
infirmed until natural death. So come breath the clean air… Ave Maria!
Air Maria - http://www.airmaria.com
33 Emilio Gonzales and the Implications to Catholic Hospitala
By Future Doc Wilson (Future Doc Wilson) In 1980, the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department that oversees Catholic doctrine,
released a declaration on euthanasia that said it's morally acceptable to
discontinue extraordinary, or disproportionate, ...
The Future Doc Wilson -
http://docwilson.blogspot.com/index.html
34 Euthanasia Story Update
Dear Caring Disability Community Members... I received the ED's "written
determination" of the grievance submitted on behalf of Tracey. I've copied and
pasted it below. I did delete each spot where her last name is mentioned and ...
ORblogs.com - ORpost - http://www.orblogs.com/
35 Mental Capacity Act comes into force
By deleted (deleted)
They are threatening to defy new 'backdoor euthanasia'
laws that would force them to starve and dehydrate their patients to death. Some
have said they would ignore the Mental Capacity Act which came into force last
weekend. ...
Catholic Action UK -
http://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/index.html
36 An act of mercy: euthanasia today / by Richard Trubo Trubo,
Richard.
New Materials as English language... -
http://library.regent.edu
37 euthanasia in Counselling and Psychology Last post by
Rubix1311, Mon 09-Apr-07 (0 Replies) Thomson Education Direct -
http://www.thomsoneducationdirect.com.au/forums
40 The Euthanasia of a Nation By LindyKimball
Terri Schiavo’s Death Was Just the Beginning — The Euthanasia of a Nation. Email
this article Printer friendly page. by Bobby Schindler April 1, 2007.
LifeNews.com Note: Bobby Schindler is the brother of Terri Schiavo and he and
his ...
Patriots and Liberty -
http://patriotsandliberty.com
41 Bishops of Catalonia: Terrorism just as violent as
euthanasia and ...
... this week in which they equated the “large terrorist acts” of recent years
and the mistreatment of women with other “forms of violence” such as abortion
and euthanasia, which attack the inalienable right to life of every human being.
CNA - Daily News -
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/
42 Children Refuse To Take Mother's Body From Morgue - 4 Years
After ...
By John Mesirow
According to the children, their mother was poisoned, a victim of "involuntary
euthanasia." They will not take the body becasue they are demanding that an
inquest be held to investigate the death further. ...
Legal Juice - http://www.legaljuice.com/
43 Why I’m Still Opposed to Euthanasia
By docpete
You might see how, though atheist, I also can avidly hold a position opposed to
euthanasia. Indeed, whenever thorough public consultation and comprehensive
examination of the legislative consequences has been undertaken (for instance by
...
Philosophical Investigations... -
http://docpete.wordpress.com
44 Putting the "sad" back in the saddle again By Doug Tidwell
If InfoWorld were truly serious about sustainability then you would practice
euthanasia and stop trying to grow your business by wily scrambling to any media
that ensures continued growth. Sustainability through euthanasia. ...
Doug Tidwell -
http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/Doug_Tidwell?ca=drs-bl
47 Dutch Euthanasia
By Wesley J. Smith
In his book Seduced by Death, Herbert Hendin reported that one reason the Dutch
people have not turned against their euthanasia law is that doctors and the
media in Holland do not candidly report about the many abuses and violations of
...
FIRST THINGS: On the Square -
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare
48 Swiss Court Ruling Allows Euthanasia For Mentally Ill By
Colin Revell A RULING by Switzerland's highest court has opened up the
possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors
to take their own lives. Switzerland already allows doctor-assisted suicide for
terminally ill ...
UK Indymedia Newswire -
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/newswire.rss
49 Euthanasia
By Scotty(Scotty)
Lately, I've been reading up on the subject of euthanasia with a mind to looking
at all sides of the arguments for and against and deciding which side of the
fence I might find myself sitting on. Boy, oh boy, I couldn't have guessed at
...
The Frog Prince -
http://scotty-thefrogprince.blogspot.com/index.html
50 PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW: COMMEMORATIONS SET By Jeanette
Keynote speaker will be Professor Henry Friedlander, an Auschwitz survivor who
authored “The Origins of Nazi
Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution.” There will be a
candle-lighting ceremony, musical performances and a recital ...
Together -
http://www.americangathering.com
51 Walking in faith By javadawn
When he was done, graciously, the head judge responded, “That, was an exemplary
speech Mr Urban, about youth in Asia. However, the topic we were asking for was
“Euthanasia.” However, due to your all around complete answer, ...
Java Dawn -
http://javadawn.wordpress.com
52 Euthanasia doctor avoids prison By karuturi
Quote:. A French doctor has been given a one-year suspended jail term for
poisoning a terminally ill woman. What is your view on Euthanasia? Do you
support it? I support active Euthanasia. I cant see my terminally ill patient
suffering.
Doctor .VG Forum - http://www.doctor.vg
53 Ballot Watch 2008: Life Begins At Conception Edition By
SCOTT MOORE Section 46 will state; all human life is protected from conception
to natural death. A. This amendment prohibits abortion. B. This amendment
prohibits euthanasia. C. This amendment establishes life as beginning at
conception. ...
Blog Town, PDX -
http://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/
54 12 Reasons Why Euthanasia Should Not Be Legalised It is
widely believed that there are only two options open to patients with terminal
illness: either they die slowly in unrelieved suffering or they receive
euthanasia. In fact, there is a middle way, that of creative and compassionate
...
LadiesAgainstFeminism.com -
http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/
55 The Often Untold Truth About Dutch Euthanasia By Wesley J.
Smith(Wesley J. Smith) When I read the transcript of this puff radio report from
the Netherlands on the 5th anniversary of the formal legalization of euthanasia
in that country (it has actually been permitted since 1973), I saw red. Dr. ...
Secondhand Smoke -
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/blogger.html
56 Medical Suicide and Medical Futility? Presidential Race
2008
By Christian Sinclair, MD(Drew Rosielle MD) Can you easily explain the ethical
and medical differences among euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide,
withholding unwanted treatment, withdrawal of unwanted treatment, and aggressive
palliative care? If not you should brush up on it ...
Pallimed: A Hospice & Palliative... -
http://www.pallimed.org/index.html
58 Euthanasia and Disabilities
The case of Terri Schindler Schiavo is at heart a disability rights issue. Do
people with severe cognitive or physical disabilities have rights? Should they
be allowed to waive them? Should others be encouraged to do that for them? ...
About Parenting Special Needs:... -
http://specialchildren.about.com/?r=94
59 Why nobody else wants euthanasia
Euthanasia became legal in the Netherlands five years ago - but why is the rest
of the world unwilling to follow the Dutch example? A Dutch physician who has
performed euthanasia tells us his story.
RNW: English -
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/
60 Mental Capacity Act 3 By angry doc(angry doc)
During the passage of the Bill through Parliament the Government insisted that
the practice did not amount to euthanasia. But some doctors insist that if they
deliberately withheld food and fluid from a person who would not otherwise ...
Angry Doctor -
http://angrydr.blogspot.com/index.html
62 Re: Baby euthanasia is a reality By Amber
Parents often have to do the counter intuitive thing and actually cause their
children pain, that the children do not understand, but will benefit them in the
long run. A dying infant has no long run and I would argue that there is an ...
Tribe.net: ! * POLITICS * ! -
http://USpolitics.tribe.net
65 Benedict Roundup (January - Easter 2007) By
Christopher(Christopher) Pope Benedict XVI strongly reasserted Tuesday the
church's opposition to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, saying that
Catholic politicians were "especially" obligated to defend the church's stance
in their public duties. ...
Against The Grain -
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/blog/index.html
66 euthanasia presentation
By Tristan Lear (Tristan Lear)
http://dwyzdyn.dyndns.org/lj/deathppt/yaydeath/16.%20Dead.mp3.
http://dwyzdyn.dyndns.org/lj/deathppt/yaydeath/gutierrez.cyber.suicide.cnn.ws.wmv
(right click & save link as / save target as). (ppt
file) (zip file)
council of elderly females -
http://tweeeeeek.livejournal.com/
67 Should Catholics vote for the BNP?
By DL82
As a Catholic, the BNP are probably the only UK party that agrees 100% with the
non-negotiable aspects of Catholic moral theology (abortion, euthanasia,
homosexuality). All the same, they are evil. They also hate the Catholic Church
(in ...
Catholic Answers Forums -
http://forums.catholic.com
68 Morphine can’t be used for euthanasia
By Editor-in-Chief
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, England, March 1 (UPI) — Morphine is too short-acting
and well-tolerated to hasten death, argues a British doctor in this week’s
British Medical Journal. Kelly Taylor, a terminally ill woman, ...
Alanat News - http://www.alanat.com
69 Socialists in Mexico now seeking to legalize euthanasia
MEXICO CITY, April 10 (CNA) - According to the Mexican daily “Milenio,” this
week the Socialist party in Mexico is planning to send another proposal to the
Mexican Senate that would legalize euthanasia.
CNA - Daily News -
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/
70 Euthanasia is a Glass Slipper
By Pete Abel(Pete Abel)
With respect to this post and its bottom line point from Polimom, I extend a
heartfelt "Here, here." I don't think it's possible for me to agree more.
Central Sanity -
http://centralsanity.blogspot.com/index.html
71 Dawkins on euthanasia
By Ithika(Ithika)
When my time comes I'll have myself declared an animal and go to the vet!
The Broken Hut -
http://brokenhut.livejournal.com/
72 MoD predicts future chaos
By Open Europe blog team(Open Europe blog team) They also speculate that young
Europeans might vote for euthanasia to reduce the costs of ageing populations
and that dictators might develop age reversing drugs so they can stay in power
for ever. They also suggest that the middle ...
Open Europe blog -
http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/index.html
73 A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and
Medicine By Nicolae Morar In this first book to explore the history of
euthanasia worldwide since classical antiquity, distinguished historian Ian
Dowbiggin exposes the many disturbing themes that link present and past in the
concept of the right to die. ...
BlogEthics Purdue -
http://blog.bioethics-purdue.com
74 Orthodox Church & Scientists Against Euthanasia By Sotto
Voce (Sotto Voce) Should euthanasia become legal, terminal patients would be
required to inform their physician in writing who in turn would have the request
notarised. A panel of doctors would then have two months to examine it and
determine whether ...
CLERICAL WHISPERS -
http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/index.html
75 Dutch Euthanasia Law Marks 5th Anniversary - What They
Won't Tell You By Life News Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute,
an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide,
and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. In his book
Seduced by Death, ...
News/Activism -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
77 De fide
By Michael(Michael)
... you must adhere to five "essential" beliefs by opposing same-sex marriage
(often interpreted as opposing any efforts for legal equality for homosexuals),
birth control abortion, euthanasia and some forms of stem cell research (often
...
Sleeps with Dragons -
http://sleepswithdragons.blogspot.com/index.html
78 Good news: Rudy wades into the Terri Schiavo debate By
Allahpundit Congress also approved, and President Bush signed, a measure
allowing federal courts to review the Schindler family’s lawsuit to prevent her
euthanasia death… Giuliani told reporters he supported those attempts to prevent
the painful ...
Hot Air - http://hotair.com
79 Eye on the Culture By Mike
*Terri Schiavo’s Death Was Just the Beginning — The Euthanasia of a Nation
*‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Seem to Be the Hardest Word, by Ann Coulter
-
http://www.guardingthelandmarks.com/blog
80 Mexico could legalize euthanasia
Now Mexico is on its way to the legalization of yet another controversial
practice: euthanasia. The health commission of the Mexican senate responsible
for the proposed bill, which ...is based on humanist principals and respects the
...
VivirLatino - http://vivirlatino.com/
81 Non-Voluntary Euthanasia
Definition of Non-Voluntary Euthanasia.
About Death & Dying: What's Hot Now -
http://dying.about.com/?r=94
82 Youth in Asia
By blork
It doesn’t happen because the kid in front of me got to talk about euthanasia.
It missed me by a count of one. When it’s my turn to talk I’m already red
faced and practically soiling myself, not from my upcoming Canadian flag fiasco
but ...
blork blog -
http://www.blork.org/blorkblog
83 The Roundup for Wednesday, April 11th
"At the same time, an equally large number of representatives of the state
Humane Association, other groups and individual supporters testified in support
of the bill, aimed at reducing euthanasia of what's been roughly estimated at a
...
The Roundup -
http://www.capitolbasement.com
84 The Ethically Sketchy Post
By prestidigitator
Euthanasia:. Choice is a fundamental principle everybody bases their lives on so
isn’t it wrong to strip a person of choice? If a person reaches a point where he
thinks it’s far too physically painful to live, he/she must be given the ...
the prestidigitator -
http://ontheverge.wordpress.com
85 In Memory of Pope John Paul II
By Jean M. Heimann(Jean M. Heimann)
"Similarly, euthanasia and assisted suicide are never acceptable acts of mercy.
They always gravely exploit the suffering and desperate, extinguishing life in
the name of the "quality of life" itself."~Living the Gospel of Life: A ...
Catholic Fire -
http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/index.html
86 Ross Mayfield: consoling someone with the repercussions
that euthanasia is legal in some countries, and you never want to live with such
decisions.
Twitter / Jason Paul with friends. -
http://twitter.com/2114941?with_friends=1
87 Euthanasia as Source of Organs?
By Wesley J. Smith
If a law allowing euthanasia appears in Russia, the risk of criminal seizure of
human organs sharply increases, Member of the Russian State Duma, Doctor of
Medicine, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences academician Sergey Kolesnikov ...
bioethics.com - http://bioethicsnews.com
88 Iain Duncan Smith on Abortion, Mental Capacity Act and SORs
By marsden (marsden) Turning to the Mental Capacity Act which, of course, comes
into force this year as well, obviously you were a strong opponent of that and
particularly the euthanasia by omission element. Do you think there's still a
big loophole in ...
Bashing Secularism -
http://bashingsecularism.blogspot.com/index.html
89 Federal Judge Sides with Euthanasia Law; Wal-Mart
Surrenders to ...By Denny(Denny)
Here's a couple of important stories from our friends at LifeNews.com that I
didn't want you to miss. The first concerns Emilio Gonzalez and his family's
fight against a barbaric Texas law, an uncaring hospital, and now a federal
judge ...
Vital Signs Blog -
http://vitalsignsblog.blogspot.com/index.html
90 Cut off before their time By Tom (Tom)
Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia
Society) are advertising for a Parliamentary Officer.
According to the ad, the closing date is Monday 16 April 2007, but "If the right
candidate applies we may appoint earlier". ...
let's be sensible -
http://letsbesensible.blogspot.com/index.html
92 The European Union to prohibit anti-Holocaust blasphemy By
Steve Edwards(Steve Edwards) ... in a matter of minutes is a somewhat more
atrocious demise than starving to death over an entire month - this would be a
fascinating revelation for pro-euthanasia activists, whom I'm sure will take
this recent finding on board. ...
The Raving Wingnut -
http://ravingwingnut.blogspot.com/index.html
93 Orthodox Church against euthanasia Story HERE. I...
By JamesoftheNorthwest (JamesoftheNorthwest)
Orthodox Church against euthanasia Story HERE. I am assuming there was a pretty
bad translation problem here: It “is absolutely amoral from the Christian
viewpoint to help one commit a suicide,” said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, ...
Paradosis -
http://paradosis.blogspot.com/index.html
94 The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia By Wesley J.
Smith During the first forty years of the twentieth century, fueled by the
eugenics movement, the question was very much on the table. Then the Holocaust,
in which euthanasia of the disabled played [...] FIRST THINGS: On the Square -
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare
95 Voluntary Active Euthanasia
Definition of Voluntary Active Euthanasia.
About Death & Dying: Most Popular... -
http://dying.about.com/?r=94
96 The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia - Raiders
News Network ... fueled by the eugenics movement, the question was very much on
the table. Then the Holocaust, in which euthanasia of the disabled played a
central role, demonstrated the acute danger of following such a course.FULL
STORY HERE>>
- http://newsbunker.com
97 Laws Promoting Sin Lead to Death
By Christinewjc(Christinewjc)
This leads us to the subject of euthanasia. In another article, I was reading
about a desperate mother who wants more time with her terminally ill
17-month-old child. But a Texas court may side with the hospital officials that
want to ...
Talkwisdom -
http://talkwisdom.blogspot.com/index.html
98 Euthanasia A Ok!!!
I think a particular 80 year old had it right when she yelled at the Minister
for Aging (who is completely against euthanasia) because he was only 31, and
"Why the hell was a strapping young man in charge of the aged when he didnt know
...
Bat Out Of Hell -
http://mwhahahahawelcometothe.spaces.live.com/
99 Sweden to allow passive euthanasia
By Steve Bartin(Steve Bartin)
The Local.
newsalert -
http://nalert.blogspot.com/index.html
100 What about the kids?
By Mason Murch
You see, one day these confused, semi-loved children are the ones who will one
day have to care for us. Do you think they will? I don’t. I predict in the
coming decade we will hear more and more talk about the benefits of Euthanasia.
...
Mason Murch -
http://masonmurch.wordpress.com
101 Euthanasia Discussion
By snowman10
There are two types of Euthanasia, active and passive.
Active is taking deliberate measures to ending life.
For example, the injection of lethal medications.
Passive is allowing the person to die as a result of the disease that has been
...
Catholic Answers Forums -
http://forums.catholic.com
102 Explaining euthanasia to a preschooler
By dejah420
Share your personal stories about explaining euthanasia to a preschooler. I have
a 21 year old cat who has become simply miserable. Drastic lifesaving measures
would only prolong her discomfort at this point. I love my cat, ...
Ask MetaFilter - http://ask.metafilter.com/
March 30, 2007
LAST RIGHTS
Should we have the right to choose when we die?
New federal laws have pushed the Voluntary Euthanasia movement underground and
forced the elderly into taking increasingly extreme measures. Some are now
travelling to Mexico to buy drugs, or if they can afford it, to Switzerland to
die.
Recent surveys show a majority of Australians (80%) believe that the terminally
ill should have access to voluntary euthanasia. Yet it’s still illegal to assist
someone to die in every state and territory. Two women in NSW are now facing
charges of attempted murder for a so-called mercy killing.
So should we have the right to choose when we die? And how can we be sure that
decision is the right one - whether for ourselves or for those we love?
Host Jenny Brockie tackles the ultimate debate and talks to those facing death.
Some of those people include:
Patricia Williams who speaks exclusively to INSIGHT’S Amanda Collinge about how
her husband committed suicide because of Australia’s lack of Voluntary
Euthanasia laws.
Angelika Elliot, the wife of Dr John Elliot –who in January made the one way
trip to Switzerland to end his own life.
Ludwig Mineli, the founder of DIGNITAS –the only Swiss organisation that will
assist foreigners to die.
Marshall Perron, the former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory who was the
architect of the world’s first euthanasia legislation,
The New Minister for Ageing, Christopher Pyne, who is a strong believer in the
sanctity of life.
And the contentious Dr Philip Nitschke, who to some, represents doctor death but
to others is their only saviour.
Join INSIGHT for LAST RIGHTS broadcast on TUESDAY APRIL 3 at 7.30pm on SBS
television. REPEAT FRIDAY 1:30pm and MONDAY 2:30pm.
Also included in the program was Dr
Rodney Syme, past president of DWDV and Mary Walsh, activist. Also two
Heathworkers engaged in Palliative Care in Melbourne and Sydney.....
February 14, 2007
We should respect the dying wishes of the
terminally ill
By Leslie Cannold - posted Wednesday, 14 February 2007
A version of this piece was
published in The Age on February 1, 2007.
The hypocrisy of the Coalition government on issues of personal choice is
breathtaking. While supporters of restrictions on junk food advertising to
children or universal minimum workplace conditions are “nanny state” advocates,
blanket prohibitions on the capacity of terminally ill Australians to control
the time and manner of their own deaths are claimed to show adequate respect for
individual choice.
International and Australian surveys repeatedly show strong public support for
euthanasia. A 2002 Morgan survey found 70 per cent in favour of laws allowing
hopelessly ill patients to seek assistance from doctors to suicide. Seventy-five
per cent of sitting members in the last Victorian parliament supported the
rights of the terminally ill to die with dignity.
Such figures may explain why opponents of a right-to-die rarely mention the
religious and ideological principles behind their stand and focus instead on
pragmatic objections to legal change.
These include claims that patient-controlled death will undercut efforts to
improve palliative care, that proper pain management always alleviates
suffering, and that only what Juliette Hughes (The Age, January 30, 2007) calls
“the desperate, lonely, depressed and in pain” (i.e. those lacking autonomy)
choose death over palliation.
Oregon, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland allow medicos to respond to
patient requests for active assistance to die. Empirical evidence from these
jurisdictions does not support claims that the legalisation of assisted suicide
for the terminally ill undercuts the quality of palliative care.
This makes sense, as only around 2 per cent of terminally ill patients make use
of their legal right to assisted suicide. The remainder continue to choose
palliative care.
A phenomenal 77 per cent of Australians disbelieve the repeated insistence of
right-to-die opponents that modern palliative care sufficiently addresses the
suffering of the terminally ill.
The decision of John Elliot - a medical doctor - to suicide in Zurich in January
2007 suggests he didn’t believe it either. Or, alternatively, that he understood
that suffering is not limited to physical pain but includes the loss of one’s
wits, privacy with regard to bodily functions and the capacity to present
oneself to others - including one’s spouse and children - as one would like to
be seen.
Anticipation of uncontrolled pain as well as the loss of such personal dignity
appears a major motivator of Elliot’s decision to die: “My disease has dictated
that … I will die in pain. Worse than this, though, I will have no dignity in
death. I don't want my wife Angelika to see me in this way … I want to exit this
world … with my head held high.”
At the heart of the right-to-die case are claims about the entitlement of
citizens to autonomously choose to live what they define as a good life, and die
what they see as a good death.
But Liberal democratic societies have no obligation to honour the wishes of the
incompetent or the coerced. This is why those opposed to the legal right-to-die
use language - “knocked off” or “put to death” - that assumes what must be
proved: that those other than the terminally ill will dictate the ifs and whens
of an assisted suicide.
Circular definitions help “prove” their case. For right-to-die opponents, only
the depressed choose death over palliation, and depressed patients can’t make
autonomous choices. Similarly, it is claimed that patients who are loved and
adequately cared for will not choose to die, rendering all who do make this
choice necessary victims of coercion by penny-pinching medical administrators or
avaricious relatives.
Dr Elliot was wealthy, educated, not depressed, and consistent about his desire
to die. But his life was not perfect. His wife was open about the burdensome
nature of his care. In his recitation of his reasons for choosing death Elliot
includes the fact that he had burdened her for “too long already”.
Do decisions to die that reference the needs or influence of important others,
or society at large, lack the independence necessary for us to heed them? Those
opposed to individual choice in personal moral matters say “yes”.
Abortion opponents argue that an “abortion culture” pushes women to undertake
“unwanted” abortions. Men who fail to offer women the financial or emotional
support they want to continue the pregnancy “coerce” women into abortion in the
same way as inadequately sacrificing relatives compel the terminally ill to
“choose” death.
The truth is that if choices were only available to those with perfect lives,
few of us would qualify. It is one thing to point out that social conditions may
constrain the freedom of individuals to choose by depriving them of the full
range of options, or the capacity to choose between them. It’s another to say
that less than ideal choice is no choice at all.
As well, arguments that the addition of physician-assisted suicide to the range
of options available to the terminally ill somehow reduces their freedom to
choose make no sense at all.
We’ve been here before. Thirty years ago radical feminists insisted that a pro-natalist
culture and coercion from “techno-docs” made the choices of infertile women to
undertake IVF unworthy of the name. These feminists claimed that the incapacity
of “vulnerable” infertile women to choose, plus the damage they claimed the
technology posed to women as a group, justified banning it.
Resentful of being patronised, many infertile women returned fire.
Choices made in an imperfect world are still worthy of respect, they insisted.
By all means, fix the world to expand our options further. But in the meantime,
leave us with the freedom to decide between the options that are available,
according to our needs and values.
Friday, November 17, 2006:
Documentary - Do Not Resuscitate SBS Storyline will be screened the 23 and 30th November:
I loved that this article was sent back to me by an American friend via the internet within the day. Indeed a powerful tool......
I knew from my own experience of working with the Documentary Film Director, Davor Dirlic, that he did not personally or necessarily support the views expressed in the documentary. He did however allow us the privilege of listening with an open mind to reasons why we chose our stance for end of life issues. His insightful questioning of my motives were based on the idea that he at least, understood why we felt the need to be in control of our own death. He was not judgmental about an issue of which he was an observer, not a participant. I knew on occasions he found my forthrightness challenging but only by a slightest rise in the eyebrow!
He is a very astute film maker quite capable of achieving the whole truth without leaving enemies. Lots of people ask after him.
The film does not promote suicide, but it does show graphically why some people feel it is imperative for medically assisted dying to be made legal by changing Victorian legislation. (And every other State in Australia for that matter!)
As I've said elsewhere Mr Dirlic was providing the "lectern" for us to speak to the public. He was neither critical nor supportive - He listened. I'd always thought that was how Documentary were meant to be produced...with candid and honesty, even when it hurt!
Perhaps it needs to be reminded that this is a Documentary, not a Hollywood make believe, where the actor gets up off the death bed to play another role tomorrow. This stuff is for real.
Herald-Sun newspaper reported"
SBS in euthanasia film drama
By Kate Jones, November 17, 2006
A RIGHT to life group has attacked SBS for its plans to air an euthanasia documentary.
Do Not Resuscitate is a film about three Victorians [Australians] with terminal or incurable illnesses who want to take their own lives.
But Right to Life Australia spokeswoman Margaret Tighe said SBS should not televise it.
"A Licence to Kill would be a more appropriate title for this film," Ms Tighe said. "I think this documentary is very dangerous and harmful and it will unfortunately encourage some people watching it to take steps to end their lives."
But SBS Independent managing director Ned Lander said Do Not Resuscitate does not sensationalise euthanasia.
"We are reflecting the debate in the community," Mr Lander said.
"It's a sober and compassionate piece of film-making. It intelligently engages with a complex issue."
The film follows the lives of multiple sclerosis patient Judy Bayliss, 56, and cancer sufferers Steve Guest, 58, and Mary Walsh, 63.
Mr Guest, a former Cain government adviser, died in July last year after campaigning to end his own life.
Assisted suicide is unlawful in Australia and carries a 14-year jail penalty.
Director Davor Dirlic said he did not support suicide and the film does not promote suicide.
"What we have is a film about mature adults in their 50s and 60s with terminal and incurable illnesses," Mr Dirlic said. "They have reached a point where they confront their own mortalities."
The two-part documentary begins on SBS next Thursday.
October 27, 2006:
As a result of Thursday's viewing (email received
from Queensland, by Choice 27/10/06) A Contributor's Letter ( 26th inst) sent to:
The Producer of Current Affair
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a Townsville resident I was somewhat taken aback at tonight's Current Affair
program misguidedly featuring an unworthy story about a dog called Zac that made
one think that Current affair is bereft of meaningful stories.
The store proprietor's who own the dog in focus, in my opinion have allowed
their emotions to run away with their reasoning. The
proprietors whilst fully aware of the council by-laws and their obligation to
conform are knowingly acting contrary to the regulations.
In recognition of this situation I believe it was impudent of Current Affair to
have unjustifiably highlighted such a unlawful situation.
The program instead, should have been promoting a case asking what would be the
situation if all the other business people in this multi
shop complex were to also have their dogs lying around their shop's in the same
fashion.
In response to Current Affair constantly requesting of people to forward
deserving stories for presentation, I forwarded a local print media report
concerning the war veteran Mr Ralph Williams. This veteran was dying of lung
cancer and with approximately three weeks to live and in the interest of
compassion he was begging for a medically assisted death in order to have a
shorter more merciful path to the same end
In spite of my advising of this deserving humane situation, Current Affair
discourtesyly failed to even acknowledge my communicating this story for your
awareness.
After consideration of the above and attached would you please acknowledge
receipt of this communication.
The Article to which the writer was refer to,
highlighting the frivolity of the A Current Affair story themes. I had
previously recorded this article elsewhere previously but need to repeat it
again here now, for understanding.
Please, let me die - War veteran says euthanasia should be legal (PUBLISHED
SATURDAY JUNE 3RD 2006)
By Rachelle Chapman Photographer - Troy Rodgers
An 87-year-old World War11 veteran in the final weeks of his life just wants to
die. And he thinks he should have the legal right to
do it. In a matter-of-fact conversation, Ralph Williams has called for the
legalization of euthanasia.
Born in India and now a Hyde Park resident, Mr. Williams' eventful life has seen
him enlist and discharge from the British Army twice,
survive tuberculosis and live in three different countries.
Mr. Williams said he was now an old man who was no longer any use to anyone and
he just wanted to die while he had a shred of dignity.
Suffering from terminal lung cancer and emphysema, Mr. Williams said it was only
a matter of time before he became blind and senile.
"When you're (older) and don't want to live and you're costing the Government a
lot of money - shouldn't that money be put to better use by being spent on young
people?" Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams said his pension and disability payments totaled $700 per fortnight
- money he believed could be better spent elsewhere.
"What use am I right now? I just want to go," he said.
He told the Townsville Bulletin the graphic details of his life from his early
20s when he first enlisted with the British Army, right up
to the present day. Mr. Williams has lived a long and fulfilling life.
Mr. Williams enlisted with the British Army in 1940 and was discharged after he
contracted tuberculosis. He re-enlisted a year
later after passing a lax medical. After the war ended, he found himself in
London, where he worded at the UK foreign office before
falling ill. When he was well enough, Mr. Williams was eager to leave London and
relocate to Australia with his wife.
His first migrant application was rejected, but after a chance sighting of an
advertisement in a local paper, Mr. Williams contacted
a Brisbane couple who were willing to sponsor him and his wife.
He spent several years in Brisbane and returned to India for a few years when he
was in his 60's. Now he finds himself in Townsville,
frustrated that his now painful existence is dragging on. Mr. Williams told the
Townsville Bulletin yesterday he gave himself three
weeks to live. But he said he'd prefer if his end came much sooner.
Another frustration for Mr. Williams was that as a returned British serviceman,
he had no access to Gold Card health benefits open to
Australian World War11 veterans.
Mr. Williams said he did not expect the Australian Government to provide for him
but believed the British Government could have looked after its returned
servicemen better.
"You cannot give one bloke who fought gold treatment and another bloke nothing"
he said. Mr. Williams said a neighbour had been a
godsend. He said she came to visit him every day of her own accord, made his
bed, gave him food and generally made sure he was okay. Mr. Williams said he
could never repay her kindness. Now though, Mr.Williams said it was time for him
to go.
Article from the Sunday Life (The Sunday Age Magazine October 15, 2006)
If you 're feeling ill, the internet is a mine of instant information. But is all this knowledge a cure-all or a curse?
By Claire Buckis.
DIY diagnosis
The signs were subtle at first - headaches, disorientation, forgetting basic words -but within weeks, in March 2002, Anthony Cheesman was on an operating table having a five-centimetre-thick tumour removed from his brain. The next step, doctors told him, should be six weeks of daily radiation therapy to stop the tumour coming back.
Cheesman, a technical officer who was claustrophobic, shuddered at the thought of being pinned inside a machine with his head in a mesh cage. But he was convinced he'd found the perfect alternative treatment on the internet - a supplement called laetrile, made from apricot kernels. "He refused radiation therapy because he'd read all this stuff on how radiotherapy can harm your body and he wanted to try laetrile," says his wife, Clare Vivian, who began to investigate the supplement herself, following the same web links her husband had used. "It became clear that my husband's chosen alternative was probably harmless but unlikely to help him." But Cheesman, 47, had made up his mind.
In the end, Vivian supported her husband's decision. "The doctor would say, 'Even with the best treatment, your chance of being alive within two years is 10 percent,' And then there are conspiracy internet sites that say things like: 'Don't believe your doctor when they say it doesn't work.' And that's appealing, You start thinking, 'Hey. this conspiracy theory is starting to look half good.' Because, ultimately, what you are seeking is hope," says Vivian.
The couple spent more than $3000 importing laetrile injections through a Mexican website to their home in Melbourne's Abbotsford. But nine weeks later, the tumour returned. Cheesman had another operation to remove the cancer, this time trying radiation therapy as well as laetrile. It bought him an extra six months. He died in April 2003.
Vivian has no regrets. "It was his choice. The alternative treatment increased his empowerment. There are good aspects to the placebo effect - he felt he was doing something positive in quite a hopeless situation."
The internet has become a force in Australian
health care. The web goes where doctors can't: it's available any time in your
own home; you can explore frightening or embarrassing medical problems in
private; and it offers access to seemingly unlimited information.
A 2005 ACNielsen study found that 55 per cent of Australian internet users look
online at least monthly for health-related information. According to Google
Trends, Australians conducted more online health searches this year than any
other nationality.
But all this information comes with a hitch: misinformation. "There's an
overwhelming amount of information and misinformation," says Dr Branko Gesnik,
associate professor of medical informatics at Monash University, "and people may
not have the perspective or training to deal with it."
Professor Michael Kidd, a GP in Sydney's Darlinghurst and president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, believes this is why doctors need to openly communicate with their patients about the information they are seeking online. He began to notice the internet's effect on his patients in the late '90s when people would come into his office with reams of information, printed from the net. "My approach was to say, That's terrific that you're doing all this homework. Can you tell me what you think is important and most applicable in here?' That refocuses the consultation on the person rather than the information."
But it can be a fine line between being informed
and being overwhelmed. "Before the internet, people used the Reader's Digest
Home Doctor to self-diagnose," says Kidd. "So that's not new - what's new is the
sheer volume of information people now have access to."
The endless information has spawned a phenomenon called cyberchondria, where
anxiety-prone people use the internet to diagnose phantom illnesses. But
self-diagnosing online is not always misguided. In 1999, David Spuler started
rapidly losing weight and his vision deteriorated. "The doctor said to him,
'You've got an eye condition: use eye drops,'" says his partner, Anita Markovic.
But when Spuler, now 37, failed to get better. Markovic sought answers online.
"Within 20 minutes, I found his symptoms seemed to match those of type 1
diabetes. So we went straight back to the doctor, who was sceptical because it's
rare to develop type 1 diabetes at his age. But they did the test and he did
have it," Spuler was put on insulin and his more serious symptoms cleared,
Markovic has since created a website from her home in Cairns,
www.wrongdiagnosis.com , which lists
evidence-based information for thousands of health problems. (The information is
compiled, edited or written by non-medically-qualified people.)
The net changed the way I talked to doctors. It wasn't that they didn't tell me
things ... I didn't know the questions to ask.
"We've found that certain groups benefit from information on the internet," says
Helen Hopkins, executive director off the Consumers' Health Forum of Australia.
"For example, men don't want to front up to the doctor cold when they're not
sure if they have a problem. But now they can look on the internet first and
find out if they have risk factors for say, heart disease, and it gives them the
drive to ask their doctor questions,"
For people who've just been diagnosed with a
condition, sites such as
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au and
www.medicinenet.com can tell them about less common symptoms or side
effects from a drug -things they may have missed at their doctor's office.
But it's not just cold, hard medical facts that people acquire online. When lan
Roos, now 60, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, he joined an online
support group called SeedPods, through
www.prostatepointers.org . Through SeedPods, the retired academic from
Melbourne's Box Hill met two men, one in Sydney and one in California, who were
undergoing the same treatment for prostate cancer and would become enduring
friends.
He was able to compare side effects of treatment with his online friends beyond the snippets he gleaned from doctors and leaflets. "It changed the way I talked to my doctors. It wasn't so much that doctors didn't tell me things; it was that I didn't know the questions to ask. One of the side effects of my treatment was loss of libido. Doctors tell you that but they don't tell you what it really means. Somebody online said, 'It's not that you're not interested in sex; you're not even aware that you're not interested,' After I found that out, my wife said, 'That's the first time you've touched me in three weeks,' That's what loss of libido means. That's important to know." he says,
Clare Vivian also found the internet gave valuable
support while her husband was ill. "With a brain tumour, there's so much more
than just medical stuff. How do you organise power of attorney and medical
consent? How do you cope?" She is now vice chair of Brain Tumour Australia, an
internet-based support and information service. "The best thing you get online
is support. You can meet people who have the same experience as you. They might
have never met you but they can send you a cyberhug on a bad day." •
SAFER SEARCHES ON THE INTERNET:
To find quality information on the internet, use sites set up by reputable organisations such as governments, universities, hospitals or medical journals. Information should be evidence-based, which means that it has been proved in scientific trials and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. If you are looking for alternative or unorthodox treatments that are not evidence-based, make sure you research possible side effects on reputable sites, Be wary of sites that don't say how they are funded or whom to contact (sites should have a prominent link called "About us") or if the site seems to be pushing a treatment as a cure-all. Don't trust personal testimonials promoting medical treatments - what works for an anonymous person online may not work for you. Above all, discuss information you find online with your doctor before acting on it.
GOOD AUSTRALIAN SITES:
These are government-provided websites, recommended by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, which feature Australia-specific content, including information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
• www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au this site is written for consumers in plain language and has easy-to-understand fact sheets, including ones on rare conditions. All the content is reviewed by medical experts to ensure reliability and that the information is up-to-date.
• www.healthinsite.gov.au this site features more general health information and the content behind every link is reviewed by medical experts.
Thursday August 17 2006:
The documentary which will include Steve, Judy and myself will be filmed on SBS on the last two Thursdays in November 23rd & 30th. (screened over two nights is an indication of the amount of work and dedication undertaken by the film maker). Full details are available on the main screen of the website. I have no control over its content or how I will be presented.
The screening over two weeks, straddles the Victorian State Election being held November 26th.
One can hope that it may inspire law makers to consider end of life choices taken by others with the respect and dignity the issue deserves.
It seems to me having done what I've been filmed doing, a little surreal - but with every fiber of my being, I am serious about how I believe voluntary euthanasia, legality of a person's final wishes and yet respecting others right to believe something different for themselves.
I remember at one point, it was remarked I had white fleck on my lips whilst speaking and I had no problem with that because it demonstrated how very passionate I feel about change to the Medical Treatment Act 1988 to promote choice for the individual. Not for those who would choose to do nothing, but for those of us, who would do something!
Controlled by religious beliefs in my childhood with the ultimate betrayal from my POV, I dislike intensely the thought that I could be controlled and manipulated, based on "Christian Faith" to that extent in the late autumn of my life's journey. I hope the documentary reflects this. For myself, I believe that when I am dead, I am dead. I do not believe in an afterlife. I cannot manufacture a religious faith in unsubstantiated theories to suit others, because for them it would salve their conscience to know "they've saved me"! or my soul!. My contribution to the documentary will reflect my passion for living hopefully, while taking steps to accept the inevitable end of it, by death. The manner of my death matters to me more, that its arrival. I am prepared for it.
Monday June 5, 2006
Dear Sir or Madam (Addressed to a Current Affairs
Director)
With all past electronic media V.E surveys constantly revealing 70-80% majority
support for patient directed dying, please find attached for your awareness and
consideration a copy of but only one example of what I suspect could be the
situation confronting so many terminal situations and including those
debilitated via unrelenting suffering.
Whilst this should be seen as a breach of natural justice it is also an
amplification of a heart-felt call on the community and especially politicians
to find their voice and get real.
The attached was published on page eleven in the Saturday June 3rd 2006 edition
of the Townsville Bulletin and in the public interest deserves to be
investigated and seriously considered to be put to air for the awareness of all
concerned.
After reading the story I logged on to the Townsville Bulletin web site only to
find that it had not been posted thus being non-available for inter-net viewing.
In view of this I have subsequently reproduced below this factual story verbatim
(minus photo insert) for your awareness.
Yours truly
name and address supplied
Please, let me die
War veteran says euthanasia should be legal
By Rachelle Chapman Photographer – Troy Rodgers
An 87-year-old World War11 veteran in the final weeks of his life just wants to
die. And he thinks he should have the legal right to do it. In a matter-of-fact
conversation, Ralph Williams has called for the legalization of euthanasia.
Born in India and now a Hyde Park resident, Mr. Williams’ eventful life has seen
him enlist and discharge from the British Army twice, survive tuberculosis and
live in three different countries.
Mr. Williams said he was now an old man who was no longer any use to anyone and
he just wanted to die while he had a shred of dignity.
Suffering from terminal lung cancer and emphysema, Mr. Williams said it was only
a matter of time before he became blind and senile.
“When you’re (older) and don’t want to live and you’re costing the Government a
lot of money – shouldn’t that money be put to better use by being spent on young
people?” Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams said his pension and disability payments totaled $700 per fortnight
– money he believed could be better spent elsewhere. “What use am I right now? I
just want to go,” he said.
He told the Townsville Bulletin the graphic details of his life from his early
20s when he first enlisted with the British Army, right up to the present day.
Mr. Williams has lived a long and fulfilling life.
Mr. Williams enlisted with the British Army in 1940 and was discharged after he
contracted tuberculosis. He re-enlisted a year later after passing a lax
medical. After the war ended, he found himself in London, where he worded at the
UK foreign office before falling ill. When he was well enough, Mr. Williams was
eager to leave London and relocate to Australia with his wife.
His first migrant application was rejected, but after a chance sighting of an
advertisement in a local paper, Mr. Williams contacted a Brisbane couple who
were willing to sponsor him and his wife.
He spent several years in Brisbane and returned to India for a few years when he
was in his 60’s. Now he finds himself in Townsville, frustrated that his now
painful existence is dragging on. Mr. Williams told the Townsville Bulletin
yesterday he gave himself three weeks to live. But he said he’d prefer if his
end came much sooner.
Another frustration for Mr. Williams was that as a returned British serviceman,
he had no access to Gold Card health benefits open to Australian World War11
veterans.
Mr. Williams said he did not expect the Australian Government to provide for him
but believed the British Government could have looked after its returned
servicemen better.
“You cannot give one bloke who fought gold treatment and another bloke nothing”
he said. Mr. Williams said a neighbour had been a godsend. He said she came to
visit him every day of her own accord, made his bed, gave him food and generally
made sure he was okay. Mr. Williams said he could never repay her kindness. Now
though, Mr. Williams said it was time for him to go.
2006-01-22 From: Herald-Sun, Victoria, Australia
Euthanasia alive and well
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17895416%5E24331,00.html
By SUELLEN HINDE
22jan06
DOCTORS play a part in almost two in three patient deaths in Victorian
hospitals, a study into the ethics of euthanasia has found.
About 10,000 Victorians die in hospital each year after doctors withdraw
treatment or give pain relief to end the lives of terminally ill patients, the
study found.
Conducted by Monash and Melbourne university bioethicists, the
soon-to-be-released report found about 40 per cent of Victorian doctors were
willing to help patients die.
And it turned up cases of sick and dying elderly people whose families agree
with doctors that lives should not be prolonged with drugs.
Victorian euthanasia researcher and Monash bioethicist Dr Helga Kuhse said her
research mirrored a study by Britain's Brunel University released this week that
revealed two out of three hospital deaths in the UK were assisted by a doctor.
Dr Kuhse has undertaken research into Australian doctors' attitudes towards
euthanasia in 1988, 1997 and last year.
Her latest study, with Melbourne University researchers, shows many doctors
support voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide of incurable patients.
"It is going on everywhere in Australia," Dr Kuhse said.
"But in Victoria we might have more cases of active voluntary euthanasia. Some
doctors are prepared to breach the law in order to respond to patients'
requests.
"Australian law has not prevented doctors from practising euthanasia."
Bill Muehlenberg, a conservative Melbourne ethicist, said doctors should not
even contemplate euthanasia.
"The practice is illegal in Australia and there's a real danger in this of
doctors playing God," he said.
"Who's to say a family member doesn't have a less than good reason to say to the
doctor `go ahead and withdraw treatment'?"
Dr Kuhse said patients had the legal right to refuse treatment.
"And every hospital in Victoria will withdraw treatment if a patient requests it
or doctors deem it futile to continue."
Voluntary Euthanasia's children are dying on
their feet in many cases so traveling to meetings and participating in an
obvious way to the debate is not always possible. Lifting a phone is
as much as many can achieve, in order to seek relief from their miserable
existence. No the debate is not dying, Dr. Coles, just the victims,
more slowly as a result of the powerful lobby groups able to influence both
Governments and Media. Die, we all will, but it is the manner of the
dying, we advocates are trying to influence. It is becoming
increasing obvious that many will die sooner than they'd be prepared to because
one has to ensure mobility still exists to order to achieve a satisfactory
outcome. I appreciated the article's sentiments.
The Press (Christchurch)
David Coles
13 January 2006
Legalised euthanasia risks diminishing the worth of some of the most vulnerable,
writes DAVID COLES.
The recent visit of "Dr Death", Philip Nitschke, to New Zealand has again drawn
attention to the longstanding debate about
euthanasia.
I was surprised at the small numbers attending the public meetings and I wonder
if that is an indication that the euthanasia
debate is running out of steam.
The Press editorial, Debating Euthanasia (January 10), expresses regret at "the
decision of our politicians to throw out
euthanasia legislation twice, in 1995 and 2003". Should there have been an
opportunity for public submissions at a select
committee stage?
Mahatma Gandhi said: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its
weakest members." Surely among the weakest and most in need of care in our
society are those who are near the end of their life or those who, because of
debilitating illness, may believe life is no longer worth living?
Supporters of legalised euthanasia will argue that no matter how weak or
powerless we may be, we retain the right to decide whether we should end our
life.
In 2004, 73-year-old Lord Joel Joffe, who once defended Nelson Mandela,
introduced his private member's bill – the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill
Bill – into the British Parliament.
In the select committee process and the debate that followed, one of the most
cogent arguments was presented by Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford. He was
responding to criticisms aimed at opponents of the proposed bill, that because
these opponents were religious their views were not to be taken seriously.
Harries then responded simply on the basis of rational argument which did not
depend on religious presuppositions, but only "an ability to reflect rationally
on what it is to be human".
On this basis he conceded several points:
"There are some truly agonising situations."
"There are some extreme exceptions to the rule when it might not be morally
wrong to help a person die."
"That human choices should be respected, especially about not prolonging
burdensome treatment."
He then threw out a challenge to the proponents of the bill on the same rational
basis.
"Would they concede, for example, that human autonomy cannot always be the
overriding value? If so, there is then a proper debate to be had about the
circumstances when it might need to be overruled.
"Would they accept that while it might not be wrong under extreme circumstances
to help a person die, this cannot of itself be taken as evidence that such
exceptions should be turned into legislation, even with strict safeguards?
"Would they accept that, though there are clearly some people now dying whom
even the best palliative care does not really help, legislation for assisted
dying would inevitably lead to less research into, and resources for, good
palliative care?"
This last question sits uncomfortably alongside a news item in the same issue of
The Press which referred to the fact that 11 out of 21 district health boards
have yet to pass on government funding to hospices offering palliative care for
terminally-ill people.
Yes, let us have a more robust debate about euthanasia, but let it not be based
on stereotyped assumptions about pro-life and pro-choice factions.
When proponents of legalised euthanasia argue for freedom to choose when we die,
it would be all too easy, as Harries has argued, "to slide from an emphasis on
the importance of human choice into a growing assumption that when people are
not
able to make choices, when they become utterly dependent, their value is
diminished".
There are many in our society who are dependent on others for support at
different times in their lives.
As a Christian I am committed to caring for and loving others no matter who they
are or what they believe or what their
condition is, becau