Dying Badly – New Zealand Stories, compiled by retired intensive care specialist Dr Jack Havill and writer David Barber, contains relatives’ stories of bad deaths suffered by their loved ones, as submitted to the New Zealand Parliament’s inquiry into the issue of assisted dying for...
Dr Ian McPhee, anaesthetist and clinical senior lecturer at Sydney Medical School, was diagnosed at age 59 with stage four Sezary syndrome, a rare form of cancer. He underwent several rounds of treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, and at one point suffered multiple organ...
Sue Jensen is 60 years old and has oesophageal cancer, which has spread to her lungs. With Voluntary Assisted Dying bills now in the Parliaments of Victoria and NSW, Sue Jensen spoke to ABC Lateline's Emily Stewart: "I'm putting my voice out there because there's three...
When Daniel Andrews was elected as Premier of Victoria in 2014 he was a devout Catholic, who was personally opposed to voluntary assisted dying, as was his Catholic deputy, James Merlino. A year and a half later, his beloved father, Bob Andrews died from cancer. On...
Gail Armstrong, aged 68, has breast cancer, which has metastasized into her bones and stopped responding to treatment. Gail told told The Newcastle Herald “I don’t want to die...
Professor Julian Savulescu (pictured, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics and Law, Melbourne University, University of Oxford) provided a piece for The Conversation 'Sex versus death: why marriage equality provokes more heated debate than assisted dying' 18 October 2017, which includes the following interesting observations: "One major...
[caption id="attachment_10756" align="alignright" width="285"] Nia Sims with Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy and the VAD bill.[/caption] Nia Sims, 43, has been living with a severe form of the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma since she was 23. Nia was initially told it was likely she would die within...
By Peter Singer, Professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne People often ask me what connects the various issues I have written about over the years – issues like global poverty, the way we treat animals, and the way we...
Clive Deverall's suicide on 11 March 2017 was "a devastating final paragraph in a remarkable life story". At age 75, Clive Deverall, took his own life after suffering for two decades from a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Deverall’s final violent act on the day...
By Tara Nipe, a registered nurse, nursing academic, and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Vic) project officer. The overwhelming majority of patients die well: without pain or agitation, with loved ones present or recently visited. But as even experts in the field acknowledge, a tiny number...