Letters & On-line Opinions

JAMES McKay is 46 and wants to die. The former nurse, who lives in Orange, has motor neurone disease and knows that within years, his body will become useless.
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JAMES McKay has made the brave decision to speak out about his wish to choose the time and place of his death after being diagnosed with the most severe form of motor neurone disease, passed down through his family.
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Following is the Hansard report on Cate Faehrmann MLC’s comments in the NSW Parliament about the actions of Dr Catherine Lennon, devout Catholic, NSW President of Doctors for the Family,  founder and board member of Matercare Australia and opponent of Ms Faehrmann’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill. That Bill is being debated, today (23 May 2013) in the NSW Parliament.
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Voluntary euthanasia is a subject which inherently incites passionate debate from both advocates and opponents. Of course, it is only right that voluntary euthanasia legislation should be approached cautiously, with due regard for the rights and safety of patients. Those who find flaws in current or proposed legislation should, of course, state their case forcefully – using evidence and reason as a means of persuasion.
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WHEN the US state of Vermont approved a "death with dignity" Bill for terminally ill patients this week, legislators were hailed for "embracing the high margin of public support for end-of-life choices nationwide".

The applause came from Barbara Coombs, of Compassion and Choices, although the 75-65 vote for the End of Life Choice Bill was not quite as tight an embrace as polling showing 70 per cent of Americans support voluntary euthanasia.
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Why, in the face of consistent polling evidence that more than 80 per cent of Australians across all religious and political affiliations strongly support it, are legislators so wary of providing legal protection for patients and doctors who, in carefully defined clinical circumstances, wish to engage in assisted dying?
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The Rights of the Terminally Ill bill before NSW Parliament provides a dignified death free from pain and important legal safeguards for doctors, writes former NT Chief Minister Marshall Perron

"I have cancer, it cannot be treated and I am terrified of the pain and suffering to come." I have heard this many times from not only people with a terminal illness, but also from doctors who have told me of the dilemma they face when patients experience intractable suffering.
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Most people say they want to die at home. But not my friend. After the fraught experience of having nursed her dying mother at home she told her young-adult children: “Just to be clear, I never want to die at home.”

Her words surprised – even shocked – me when she told me. Now I realise a new kind of political correctness has taken hold. Just as natural childbirth was the gold standard in our childbearing years today we face a new character test: to ensure our ageing parents have a good death at home. It’s an ideal that’s turned into a mantra. I’ve chanted it myself. But having heard my friend’s experience, it seems to me the world-wide dying-at-home movement is setting up many people to feel like failures.

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The terminally ill choose death not because this is simply convenient for their loved ones, but because it is preferable to a life of inescapable and often intensifying suffering, writes Damon Young.
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A report we recently prepared with independent think tank Australia21 calls for state governments to institute laws allowing and regulating voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide – in defined and limited circumstances. In the report, we confront the idea that such laws pose risks to vulnerable people, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. We argue that safeguards can ensure the law is only used by those it’s intended for.
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The article by Gerald Gleeson (SMH, 3 May) claims that the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill now in the Legislative Council would erode the trust between doctors and patients.

Of course I trust my doctor to heal me if she can.  And of course I trust her to relieve my suffering if she can.  But if she cannot restore my heath and if my pain and anguish is unrelievable because I am dying, I trust her to help me end my life if I ask her to.

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Charles Sturt University (CSU) medical ethicist Dr Alberto Giubilini believes voluntary euthanasia would promote a morally acceptable, more humane and more compassionate treatment of the terminally ill.
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 The Editor

Neil Ormerod (Letters, 6 May) seems himself to be confused about the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill, perhaps because of his inability to use the word “voluntary” next to “euthanasia”. 

The Bill will allow terminally ill persons to request and receive assistance to end their lives voluntarily.  It is based on voluntary choice, both for the doctor and the patient.  No-one will be forced to use it.

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Neil Omerod rejects support for voluntary euthanasia because he claims it will result in the wishes of the patient overruling the ethical concerns of a doctor (SMH letters 6 April). This is statement is made either in ignorance of, or as misrepresentation of, the bill that is currently before the NSW Parliament. 

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A story out of Dublin today makes you wonder how far this world has moved – especially in backward countries like Ireland and Australia-- when it comes to the issue of voluntary euthanasia.

The Irish Supreme Court has ruled that a 59-year-old woman, in the final stages of multiple sclerosis, does not have the right to an assisted death.
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