Stories

Loredana: I am not allowed to die

"My name is Loredana Alessio-Mulhall and I have advanced, progressive multiple sclerosis. I am totally disabled and can’t move anything except my head and my mouth. I have had a catheter for 10 years and a colostomy for 15 years and for me there is no turning back. It...

Heather’s Story – Regrets of the dying podcast

Georgina Scull has made this heart-warming podcast, where she speaks with Heather Pratten, now 80 years old, as she relives what led up to that life-changing decision to help her son to die. It is the story of a mother who could not bare to...

Labor councillor’s plea to NSW MPs

City of Sydney Labor councillor Linda Scott, and her father Dr Gary Scott, are urging MPs to vote in favour of a voluntary assisted dying bill due to come before the upper house of the NSW Parliament within months. Dr Gary Scott was diagnosed with...

At his own wake

Last June the Canadian government legalised what it termed “medical aid in dying for competent adult patients who are near death and suffering intolerably. “When his doctor, Stefanie Green, informed him that he qualified, Mr. Shields felt the first hope since a doctor told him...

Annie releases petition update

Annie G has sent a petition update to all those people who have signed her Change.org petition “Don’t leave me trapped in a dying body - allow me to die peacefully” which she started on 4 May. It starts "Tuesday was huge for me and...

Campbell to end his own life

Colin Campbell, aged 56, lives with a rare form of the degenerative disease multiple sclerosis (MS) and struggles to leave his first floor flat Campbell recently travelled to Switzerland to meet doctors and was given the date of Thursday, June 15, for his appointment at the...

Dr Syme shares Bernard’s last moments

[caption id="attachment_8672" align="alignleft" width="893"] Dr Rodney Syme and Mr Bernard Erica photo credit Jackie Cohen[/caption] Dr Rodney Syme has described his final moments with Bernard Erica, a terminally-ill patient who died after taking a life-ending drug. Read 9news article 13/4/17 on 7 March, 2016 ABC’s “Australian Story” was...

Dr Syme: 2017 Australian Humanist of the Year

The Council of Australian Humanist Societies recognise Dr Syme’s sustained advocacy and well informed support for physician-assisted dying. Dr Syme will be presented with The Australian Humanist of the Year 2017 award at a Gala Dinner on Saturday 8 April in Melbourne. “Assisted dying is...

Colorado woman ends her life

On Sunday, Kathy Myers took the medication that ended her life, surrounded by her husband and their daughter and the Hospice nurse, who asked to be there in case something went wrong, and to learn more about the process. “We held hands. She laid back...

Noel Conway loses UK court bid

Noel Conway, 67, who was diagnosed in November 2014 with terminal motor neurone disease has lost a High Court bid to challenge the law on assisted dying. Mr Conway was seeking a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with Article 8 of the...