Formerly known as Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia

Tag: voluntary euthanasia (Page 2 of 3)

Letter to Brad Hazzard, Minister for Health – Please have positive input into the NSW assisted dying draft legislation.

My email to our new NSW Minister for Health, sent 13.2.2017

Brad Hazzard
Minister for Health

Dear Mr Hazzard

Congratulations on your appointment as Health Minister for NSW.  It is encouraging that in the Daily Telegraph 6.2.2017 you are reported as recognising that more needs to be done for health matters in regional NSW.

You also stated that: “……often people depart this life in hospital…….”.  This is certainly true, as NSW Prof Ken Hillman has noted: “Up to 70% of people now die in acute hospitals, surrounded by well meaning strangers, inflicting all that medicine has to offer; often resulting in a painful, distressing and degrading end to their life.”

Research indicates that in fact 70 to 80% of terminal patients would prefer to die at home.  To enable this, adequately trained people are needed, plus the funding directed towards this service.  I imagine it could well be ‘cost effective’ compared with dying in an Intensive Care Unit or similar?  Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-25/hundreds-access-program-of-end-of-life-care-at-home/6883162

Another issue relating to the terminally ill also attracts a similar level of 70 to 80% public support in NSW.  That of assisted dying choice for the terminally or hopelessly ill who are facing futile suffering.

A cross party group of NSW MPs is currently working on a draft Bill to enable this choice, and I respectfully urge you to please have positive input into this much needed legislation, with the aim of ensuring that the final draft is such that you as Minister for Health could publicly support and vote to pass it.  It does need to have a balance enabling access for the patients who wish to use it, and safeguards to protect from possible abuse.

There is now extensive data from other jurisdictions that proves this balance is possible.
– A wide ranging, in depth, Victorian Parliament Inquiry into End of Life Choices made Continue reading

VCAT rules in favour of Dr Rodney Syme

I am delighted with the news from DWDV (Dying with Dignity Victoria). Here is the item direct from their website.  VCAT is the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.   Dr Rodney Syme is a person of great compassion and a doctor with true empathy for his patients. Post by Ian Wood.

http://www.dwdv.org.au/news/vcat-rules-in-favour-of-dr-rodney-syme

DWDV Vice President, Dr Rodney Syme, cleared by VCAT

21 December, 2016

Dying With Dignity Victoria are delighted by the recent ruling in Dr Rodney Syme’s VCAT case, where he fought against a condition placed on his medical license by the Medical Board of Australia in relation to counselling that he was providing to a Victorian man.

From the final report:

“Dr Syme’s practise is limited to advising and assisting patients who are in the final stages of terminal illness and to whom a sense of control over their dying is important. His patients seek him out. He does not advertise for patients.

He therefore has contact only with those patients who self-identify as being part of a cohort for whom traditional palliative care options may not be acceptable. Having been contacted by them, he assists only those whom he is satisfied are in a sound state of mind and whose death from their disease is inevitable or whose disease has progressed to the extent that their lives have become intolerable to them.

It is widely accepted in palliative medicine that, consistent with this clause, doses of medicine may be given to patients to relieve their pain and suffering even though it is foreseeable and indeed inevitable that those doses will also have the effect of hastening the patient’s death. The use of morphine and sedatives for this purpose is widely accepted and meets the needs of many patients. However, not all patients wish to receive that form of palliative care because of the loss of dignity, control and comfort which can be associated with it.”

The final report on the case released by VCAT is an interesting read, frankly detailing the work that Dr Syme does in counselling people who are suffering from terminal or advanced incurable illnesses as they near the end of their lives.

In determining that Dr Syme’s practises and counselling are intended to relieve suffering and not primarily aimed at ending a person’s life, VCAT has ultimately found that Dr Syme’s practises are not a risk or a danger to the community. They cited his knowledge of palliative care, his extensive experience in counselling people who are irremediably suffering at the end of their lives and the professional manner in which he has conducted his counselling.

Read the full report by clicking here

 

 

Death with Dignity Bill 2016 in South Australia lost by the narrowest of margins

The Death with Dignity Bill 2016 in South Australia was defeated at 4.12am 17.11.2016. As the final vote was tied at 23-23 the Speaker, Hon Atkinson, had a casting vote & he is strongly opposed to VE so voted against.

To quote from a brief report from SAVES: The many hours of debate were marred by general obstructionism – nitpicking, also fear mongering. There were excellent  supporting speeches as well.

The Bill did make history in South Australian, as it was voted into the Committee Stage where is is discussed clause by clause.  This vote passed 27 to 19. Essentially this meant that the principle of an assisted death choice was accepted by the Lower House of the South Australian Parliament.

Some of the quotes from MPs opposing compassionate choice in this  restrictive Bill are quite revealing…..   Here are some of those I describe as “pearls of wisdom”!!  Taken from Hansard.

Knoll – the reason this bill can never be good enough is that it is not about safeguards within the bill that is the issue, it is the actions of families, it is the actions of the medical profession, it is the actions or inactions of government that, in circumstances, will herd people towards this choice.

Pengilly – I have been hounded by members of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society in my own area, absolutely hounded. If that did anything, it hardened my resolve to stand up in this place and put on the record my objection to this legislation and the fact that even if this does not get through, it will come up again and again.

I am absolutely fed up to the back teeth with having euthanasia legislation rammed down my throat on a seemingly endless basis.

I sincerely hope that, in due course, when the vote does come, members in this place do not support moving past the second reading and that we get on with the important business in this place.

Atkinson  – Those who want AVE say they want personal autonomy in the manner of their death, yet they require the state to create and fund a vocation whose job it will be to terminate life.

Tarzia – I cannot support a bill that would potentially allow suicide to become a business. From my reading, that is what has happened in countries like Switzerland, and that is not right.

– Putting moral beliefs aside, and putting what the electorate wants aside, I believe it is plainly obvious that the practicalities also have to be considered. I do not believe we should pass this bill, which impairs the inalienable right to life.

Rankine – independent assessment by two doctors, and I can tell you from bitter experience it can simply be a ‘tick and flick’ exercise.

Williams   – I am not convinced that we need to bring in specific legislation at this point in the history of our species to cure something which we have lived and died with forever.

– I am concerned about what might happen in 20 or 30 years if we open this gate. If we apply our minds to the worst outcome of state-sanctioned killing it is certainly not beyond my imagination to see great evil emanate from this measure—great evil.

– I believe that the most vulnerable people in our society would be put under greater threat by this measure,

– We have a fantastic medical profession dedicated to supporting our health and wellbeing. What sort of message would we be sending to the medical fraternity if we suggested to them that there is a quick and easy way out of every problem that walks through their door?

Life is to be endured, unfortunately.

Piccolo – Palliative care workers believe that by improving the quality of, and access to, palliative care, there will be no need for voluntary euthanasia

Speirs   – Death is inevitable and suffering on earth is inevitable.

– palliative care should be able to comfort people when they are in significant pain and adding voluntary euthanasia into the mix negates the need to invest in palliative care, there is no doubt at all about that.

– Belgium and the Netherlands are specific examples of that, where children can now be euthanased. There is no getting away from that; I am not scaremongering by saying that children can be euthanased in Holland and Belgium.

– I do get sick of people saying that 80 per cent of South Australians or 80 per cent of Australians support voluntary euthanasia. ……….when you have informed discussion about this through focus groups and processes like the citizens juries that are often advocated by the Premier, that sort of informed decision-making, this support falls away. It falls away dramatically and ends up below 50 per cent, and the research shows that is the case.   (I would like to see details of this ‘research’)

Koutsantonis  – Again, after 19 years, my vote will be no. I know that within my electorate this [voluntary euthanasia] is overwhelmingly popular. Everywhere I go, when people talk to me about this issue, the same thing is said to me by my constituents, ‘We want you to support legalised euthanasia.’

Ms Vlahos  – Do we want to have a society where life is valued or do we start pulling back the tide and allowing, bite by bite, people to start disappearing from this place, this state, and not protecting them when they are frail and vulnerable?

Kenyon – there is no bill that I would vote for because I have a fundamental opposition to euthanasia. It is partly informed by my faith—I have never been afraid to admit that—but not perhaps in the way people would expect. It is more in the way my faith informs my view of human nature.

– I do not believe that the state should be involved in the killing of its citizens

– let’s not kid ourselves, from time to time people will do the wrong thing—that is when safeguards break down. If safeguards break down often enough, they become a norm, they become an accepted way of doing things, and they have completely and totally failed.

I will not be doing anything to help make it easier for anyone to vote for this bill because I think the concept of euthanasia is fundamentally flawed.

 

I can find others….. but this is a representative sample!!!!

Ian Wood

Create and send your personalised Voluntary Euthanasia Bill to the Politicians.

Here is an exciting new initiative from Andrew Denton and his team at Go Gentle Australia.  It is fully automated, takes only seconds to prepare, and looks impressive!
https://bethebill.com/bill/10153905379677338#

To quote from the Be The Bill Website…..

Create a version of a Voluntary Euthanasia Bill with your name in it, replacing the neutral legal word, ‘person’, as a symbol of your support. We’ll instantly send it to the 69 MPs in South Australia. Let’s remind them that the upcoming vote on the Bill is about real people, with real suffering, who are seeking the choice of a peaceful death. We won’t publish anything to your Facebook feed without your permission, but we hope you will share your Bill and spread the word.

The outcome of this vote won’t just affect one State. It will affect us all.

Please share on Facebook.

Regards

Ian

My comment that Life Site News did not want you to see!

I  refer to the article in Life Site News by Brad Mattes: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/assisted-suicide-no-longer-just-for-the-terminally-ill

Here is my comment that they posted briefly, then took down.

I respectfully take issue with some of the points he [Brad Mattes] makes and ask for clarification, and make a comment on other points.

– Mr Mattes states: Assisted suicide or euthanasia is currently legal in Albania, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Japan, Switzerland, and the NetherlandsWould Mr Mattes please provide me with a link to the Act of Parliament in Albania and Japan that legalises assisted suicide or [voluntary] euthanasia?

The closest I can find is that they both permit turning off life support systems, which is also permitted in   Australia.

– Next he states: Re Netherlands In 2013 — just 11 years later — it’s estimated they euthanized 650 babies. The use of the word ‘euthanized’ here is simply not correct! Research articles by Neil Francis, Dying For Choice, here and Prof, Colleen Cartwright confirm this.

On 12th June 2013 the KNMG [Royal Dutch Medical Association] issued a media release announcing that it  had published a position paper on ‘Medical end-of-life decisions in neonates with very serious defects’.  The media  release stated that of around 175,000 babies born each year in the Netherlands, “around 650 infants will die,  usually as a result of very severe congenital defects and in spite of the best possible intensive care treatment.”  Continue reading

Very promising news from Victoria

The Victorian Parliament Legal and Social Issues Committee has tabled its Final Report on its Inquiry into End of Life Choices. This includes recommendations on palliative care, Advance Directives, etc, and particularly Recommendation 49: That the Victorian Government introduce a legal framework providing for assisted dying, by enacting legislation based on the assisted dying framework outlined in this Report in Annex 1, Assisted Dying Framework Summary.

I was invited to address the Inquiry in Melbourne as a witness, and I am pleased to be quoted twice in the full Final Report. It now remains to be seen if the Victorian Parliament will proceed to adopt and enact legislation on the recommendations.

To access the full Report click here> http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/EOL_Report/LSIC_58-05_Text_WEB.pdf  or the Summary Booklet please click here> http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/EOL_Report/LSIC_58-05_Booklet_Text_WEB.pdf

The 2016 Federal Election for readers in NSW

An election can be an ideal time to raise the issue of support for assisted dying.

Readers in NSW may wish to urgently contact Federal Senate candidates and the Lower House candidates and sitting MPs in your Electorate and ask each one if they personally would support, in principle, a terminally ill person, facing unbearable suffering, to have the legal choice of a medically assisted death. Would you please pass on any response to me so that I can in turn forward it to DWDnsw.

DWDnsw have prepared an excellent list and contact details of all NSW candidates in both the Federal Senate and Lower House and it can be accessed by clicking here > http://www.dwdnsw.org.au/lobby-your-candidates-for-the-2016-federal-election/
DWDnsw also list parties and groups who have a policy of support for assisted dying and those who have a policy of opposition.

While I would not presume to suggest how any person could vote, Shayne Higson, lead candidate for the Voluntary Euthanasia Party (VEP) http://www.vep.org.au/2016_election has pointed out the new form of voting in the Senate does give an opportunity for a ‘protest vote’ in support of VE.  Simply vote [1] above the line for VEP (Group K) or a group who support VE/assisted dying, then at least numbers 2 – 6 for other groups above the line, including the Party you would normally vote for.

Do you wish to be better informed about assisted dying issues? Suggested reading for 2016.

With new assisted dying Bills proposed for South Australia and Tasmania, the inquiry in Victoria and a cross party committee working on the issue in NSW, I am hoping there will be a breakthrough to give compassionate CHOICE in 2016.

Quebec Province in Canada in 2014, and California in USA in 2015 have shown Australia how it can be done in 2016!

Meanwhile if you would like to read more of the facts supporting CHOICE for assisted dying and/or voluntary euthanasia, please check out the following books Continue reading

Ian Wood – his followup letter to Kevin Andrews MP re the John Baylis Diary and Marshall Perron’s letter to Kevin Andrews MP

Hon Kevin Andrews MP                                               Posted 19.11.2015, on C4VE letterhead
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT
2600

Dear Mr Andrews

Marshall Perron, former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, wrote to you recently about the diary of the tragic last weeks of John Baylis, who died from Motor Neurone Disease.

As Mr Perron so clearly and succinctly pointed out, the fact that John Baylis could not access the assisted death he so rationally requested, was due to your action in instigating the overturning of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.

What Mr Perron did not say, is that you do still have the opportunity to go some way in atoning for what a substantial majority of Christians believe was your regrettable lack of compassion for the terminally ill, as they die with suffering that even the best palliative care cannot relieve.

Eighteen years have now passed since Oregon State, USA enacted their Death With Dignity Act in 1997. Since then three other states enacted similar legislation – Washington State. Vermont and California. Montana and New Mexico also have the right by a court decision In Europe, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have had choice since 2002, in addition to Switzerland.

There is now a mass of data available, based on the experience in these countries.
Essentially, we can now state Continue reading

The diary of John Baylis, and Marshall Perron’s letter to Kevin Andrews MP

83 year old Darwin man John Baylis died from the ravages of Motor Neuron Disease on 5th March 2015.  He wrote Imagine if you can, a good mind, with good recall and an active imagination, trapped in a body that can’t walk, can’t talk, both arms and hands affected, lips, and throat not under control. Difficulty eating and drinking. It is an awful place to be, believe me. The reason I have “ come out of the Closet “ is to promote and push for the right to die with dignity.

John Baylis’ Diary

83 year old Darwin man John Baylis died from the ravages of Motor Neuron Disease on 5th March 2015. This is an exact extract of his Facebook diary.
Dec 15, 2014 – Aged Care Assessment Teams ( ACAT ) I have finally been diagnosed by my GP , as having ‘ the monster inside me ‘ being diagnosed as Motor Neurone Disease . We applied for me to be assessed by ACAT , and they required a doctors report . My GP stated that I had MND . Fifteen years ago now , Dr Burrows of RDH made multiple diagnosis of my emerging symptoms . They were MND , small vessel disease , Myclophaphy and possibly Slow Person Syndrome , SPS. I visited a prominent Brisbane MND specialist three times , Continue reading

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