Comprehensive details are now available on the main page of my website, to the right – (it may take a little time to load up being a PDF file) Named, Do Not Resuscitate, the SBS Documentary, is screening Part Two, November 30th (tonight in fact).

http://www.donotresuscitatedocumentary.com gives an abbreviated version. Best described as powerful, I feel SBS showed great faith in the ability of the Director and those involved in its production to screen over two weeks, a rare treat.

As the song vaguely says, it’s 4 in the morning, and once more a dawning…… the other morning I woke too early because of concerns for others, whether welcomed or not….but this time its about me!

Last night I sent off an email to the SBS Guest Book, in which I reproached Government’s lack of inactivity in recent history, based on three excellent SBS Drama Documentaries of these past weeks…The Age of Aids, 4 Parts – Speer & Hitler, 3 Parts and Do Not Resuscitate, 2 Parts.

I focused on the discrimination arising out of three major disasters which have befallen mankind because “good men stood by and did nothing.”

The first, The Age of Aids saw HIV-Aids pandemic treated initially as a “gay man’s issue” and therefore not worthy of consideration because Governments morality did not meet the standards expected of “good religious folk”…..whether Christian, Buddhists, Hindu, Islamic, Judaism or Eclectic …..Governments would rather deny the reality of the horrific dying, the loss of parents to children, the loss of children to parents, anything but acknowledge the reality of what was obviously a major medical disaster. Those same “Leaders” still went to their various buildings of worship and implored their God to “help them” – but the Institution of Governments who could have done “something”, but did nothing until the man in the street rose up in frustration and anger, demanded their Governments act to improve their health prognosis.

Denial and Discrimination.

The second dramatization, which included genuine footage from various archives told the history of the infamous Albert Speer, an architect, then Hitler’s Armaments Minister, whatever – Narcissism personified, who went on to become a murderer of Jews, Dissentients and others through forced labor, exhaustion and starvation. Of course, for my generation we’ve all seen the footage from WW11, a hundred times. Graphic and horrible, is to understate its impact….(but part of me asks, and what lessons did the Jews learn from their own treatment, to those marginalized people in Palestine. Hitler started by displacing a population he didn’t want around, and the killing has differently continued).

One wrong does not make another right.

That Mr Speer was able to continue for so long in both his role as an revered architect and a Member of the Third Reich without “knowing” that men, women and children were being murdered in their millions, screams “Liar, Liar, Liar”….Again I thought we only have supposition on what relationship Speer had with Hitler, two deluded narcissistic feeding off each other ……whatever it was, it was an unhealthy denial of the facts as he, extremely intelligent would have deduce for himself. I was both fascinated and repulsed by Speer’s defence of “I knew nothing”….It was not my responsible to know the daily crimes committed by others, that ultimately achieved what I wanted in any case. The process was irrelevant, only the target was important, the end product! How this was achieved was not my concern??” He got 20 years in jail.

Denial and Discrimination.

The third dramatization is the current documentary Do Not Resuscitate which will conclude for the general public this evening. As a participant, Activist for Pro Choice along with Steve Guest, terminal cancer patient and Judy Bayliss, a multiple sclerosis 30 year sufferer, I have a personal interest in what this documentary will achieve at State Government levels.

I can equate Steve Guest’s suffering with those seen in the two previously mentioned docos. Whether it is Aids, Starvation or Cancer, Chronic and relentless pain, there is just the brutality and “in your face” graphic imaginary of intense suffering. The dullness of the eyes as all hope of survival and release gradually shut down the body’s sense of joy and hope and reality sets in. That the circumstances the Aids patients finds themselves in (through no fault of their own!), the Jews & Gypsies (through no fault of their own) and then the Steves and Judys (through no fault of their own)., is displaying the same futility.

Television & media in 2006 does not allow Governments to deny all knowledge of what happens elsewhere in the world or even their own State of Victoria’s backyard. Thanks for the SBS and ABC in-depth analysis away from the glitz of showbiz & share markets.

In many cases, Governments compound and are actually responsible for the unmitigated anguish caused to humans through greed, pompous belief in their own importance above their citizens, religious zealots, convenience, or reputation…..The final Glass House Comedy TV Show got their message through if only through humor….the message was clear and accurate….And the audience agreed…we need the young people to replace those older, self deluded representatives of the people. We need people to govern Australia based on scientific facts. We need to worry about our environment, with long term visions not short termed gains.

That a Victorian citizen can receive 14 years jail for assisting a suicide of a frail infirmed person, yet Mr Speer of the Nuremburg trials received twenty years, directly responsible for the death of thousands (because they were only Jews? perhaps) (Like the African Americans, on Death Row)…… just angers me beyond what is good for my health.

I am furious to think that helping a loved one to die is treated as malicious murder, than a man who murdered for gain and “glory” (but then he was probably a very good Christian, you know, like Mel Gibson!) Killing healthy young fit innocent people because of religious convictions and differences has a lot to answer for, yet desperate actions arising out of love, are treated as murder in law, by World Governments.

Denial and Discrimination.

It is never ignorance that leads Governments to “stand by and do nothing”, to sit and the fence, watch, “tut tut”, to mumble “its a shame, a pity, but what can I do?, until someone else brings their concerns to Parliament as a Private Members Bill – but not actually do anything practical themselves. It is self interest – at the expense of those who elected them.

I spoke recently to a doctor who treats HIV and I can understand that the full letter of the Medical Treatment Act 1988 has enabled doctors to fulfill their duty to the patient first and foremost…do no harm, by further treatment, in a hopeless situation. Frankly I am bloody jealous of the freedom that allows a HIV positive person to live their lives in “relative peace” knowing their death can be quick and painless because they have “a kind and genuinely compassionate doctor”… HIV patients quite rightly have access to the doctors who meet their personal needs without judgment, enabling only the patient to be considered their highest priority.

In my email to SBS Guest Book, I said that I would like the same Rights, as is extended to my dog who can be euthanized without pain or distress,following a simple injection. I would like just to be treated like a dog and be allowed to die like a dog when my time comes.

If it is good enough for a cat or a dog – we are all God’s creatures we’re told – (only man thinks he is superior to all other living entities) as the lady said in the restaurant, “I want some of what she’s having”…….only I’ll settle for it anywhere, that is, Nembutal.

Denial and Discrimination against humanity’s suffering by current Victorian legislation is to liken them to previous Governments “I know nothing” because I choose not to see “nothing” because I do not open my eyes and look at “something”…. “I can’t recall that emancipated body?” Look down, look away, look busy, look important, don’t see, don’t care, don’t be aware, Do Nothing!!!

Like Speers of Hitler’s inner circle, like the President of South Africa, Like Mr Bracks, our newly reelected Victorian Labor Premier, who could initiate something but does nothing….Just like many of the Politicians before him…..Blinkered to the point of, not stupidity through ignorance, but inhumanity because he chooses to close his eyes and not step out into the real world to see for himself how people “survive” their illnesses.

A Premier who has “promised” (source SHS Nov 26 p12) to govern for all Victorians, without discrimination. $24 million to improve ambulance times to resuscitate whether wanted or not, $350 million to improve dialysis and cancer treatments in addition to maternity. It is not as if dialysis and cancer are being ignored now…but to lie in the beds provided by the additional 168 mental health beds in suburban hospitals sums it well. Let those of us who wish to have our Living Wills honoured in legislation, choose choice and dignity in dying and free up existing resources for those who will benefit the most. The people who can be cured, want to be cured, wait to be cured, and let other who wait to die, actually do so quickly and painlessly with medically assisted dying.

I particularly liked the savings reported under Cost Cutting, of 20% fewer laws than in 1999.

What about deleting some existing suicide assistance laws thereby making some additional savings in police investigations and court proceeding, involving doctors, journalists, aged and infirmed suspects? And why back to 1999? What happened in between then and now?

Let the religious have their faith that their pain has purpose but for the rest of us, Act! Walk through the corridors of any oncology ward, hospice, nursing home, palliative care unit. Don’t see the flowers, the sparkling sheets, the crisp staff…..see the people….the human beings…and allow them Choice please!

Denial and Discrimination.

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In an Age article dated June 20 1996, captioned “Man sues physician who made him live” An American, Ray Noonkester, suffering with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disorder also know as Lou Gehrig’s disease, since 1993, was provided with a respirator to assist with his breathing. He believed it was only temporary relief and that he’d be appropriately medicated in the near future. Having been ill for three years he thought he had his house in order with his Living Will. Because he accepted the immediate solution arising out of his distress gasping for air, the doctor claimed Mr Noonkester had indicated he then wanted to live on indefinitely…….

Hard to make a rational decision when you’re turning blue in the face from lack of air!. Doctor should assume this as read…..one would have thought oxygen imperative to stabilize the condition in order to complete the process of dying by medication.

Hence, my tattoo says DO NOT RESUSCITATE – THANK YOU – VE MEMBER……. No confusion with my living will!

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In closing my diary entry today, I want to share a “moment frozen in time for me”. One of my family members vehemently opposed to my activism for the Pro Choice Lobby told me of a dream they’d had this week, in which I had gone on to develop bone cancer, and they’d agreed after all, to assist me to die.

Of course, it is possible that I may develop bone cancer (thinking of the nagging pain in my left wrist, diagnosed as arthritis), but it is absolutely impossible that I would seek assistance from anyone within my family for dying with dignity. I would never place that pressure on them to break the law – which is why the law needs to be changed. Enough they suffer from my dying, without going to jail for helping me make it peaceful. I must make my own arrangements, however difficult.

What touched me so deeply was the fact that the dream was revealed to me and its outcome for me was positive. It told me that some where in the deepest physic of the brain, change even to the strongest resolve can eventuate if the circumstances are critical. Since viewing the Documentary a major subliminal shift had occurred in someone very very important to me.

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And I remembered a friend, focusing intently on my face, who once said very gently…”Instead of saying, “I can’t do that” , think about what would happen, the opportunities possible, arising out of saying “Yes, I can do that”…..

LISTEN TO THE ‘WAFFLE’ – It may save a life…..Just who are health care practitioners and other professional listening to in their work with ageing people?

Author, public speaker, cancer survivor and health professional’ educator, 72 year old Beryl Shaw, posed this question.

In an article written in The Senior, December 2006 Edition – p3, Ms Shaw does not pull any punches when she points out in no uncertain terms that “the Professionals” need to not be talking sometimes -  and just listen to their patients.   She knows that longevity starts in the mind and because she has so much to do, she hasn’t time to die….sounds vaguely familiar to someone else I know rather well.    Very determined to make a difference and no longer prepared to accept a one way consultation.

Based on research, Ms Shaw tells us that doctors interrupt their patients on average, 20 seconds into the patient’s initial description of their problem and she challenges practitioners to evaluate their own behavior. (I must say this is not my personal experience!)

She said many simply assumed they never interrupted like that -  or took the view they didn’t have the time to listen to people “waffling on”….Listening was the first step, the second was believing what they’re told by the patient,  is valid…….

In line with my yesterday’s comment about “listening to your body” Ms Shaw talks of her cancer almost going undetected because two gastroenterologists failed to listen to her correctly – told her the tests found nothing and to stop worrying…Her response was the only thing that worried her,  was that she knew something was seriously wrong.

“It is only through hearing the voice of the patient who has been in a powerless position in your powerful world that progress occurs.”   

“Hidden away, even in waffle, may be just the clue you need to save a life”……..

One thing is clear she says, to have a long and healthy life, first you have to avoid dying young…..

What a sensible woman is Ms Beryl Shaw aged 72,  – that her CV also includes Health Professionals’ Educator is an additional bonus in her busy schedule …..I envy her capacity to achieve this eminent position….I wonder if educating health workers is easier than politicians?….she certainly has a way with words that I feel would have struck a chord with many readers of December’s The Senior.    I pay to have it delivered but the comprehensive newspaper  is readily available for free in many venues.  I feel along with COTA, The Senior likes “happy theme stories” like further education, travel, government initiatives for pensions, health etc etc, retirement village news etc…

My agenda is about the stuff that comes after all the fun times experienced in retirement and which very few people want to consider for themselves, the art of dying (well, if possible).    We all want to live a long and happy life, but even the best “party” in the world eventually comes to an end.

Folks such as Ms Shaw’s capacity for achievement,  need to extend into the education of the “Professionals” challenging them to  approach the lessons of listening to and being heard by those patients dying a slow and terrible death.

By all means live everyday to the full, in the knowledge that one can with reasonable health, but no amount of denying death will defy it’s occurrence.   It is absolute……. and Health Professionals need to find a more humane way of achieving death for those patients who prefer Pro Choice end of life decisions.      Listen to the patient, whether Pro Life or Pro Choice, just listen to the individual’s choice.

Ms Beryl Shaw’s mantra is “Don’t Tell, Ask.”    Mary Walsh’s mantra is “Talk, Listen, Respond”……Both have their place!

I can’t sleep….in spite of the Mogadon.    I feel concerned that I never followed through on a couple of gut instinct actions.

In talking on Saturday to a “How to Vote” distributor for Liberal Candidate Colin Dixon, (I was there for Labor) at the Glen Huntly Primary School,  I never said to the gentleman – please have those two sores on your lips looked at urgently please……as an outdoor worker with water tanks….it is imperative that sores like that be looked at by a professional – He was not asking my advice about anything but I desperately wanted to offer it…I gathered because he was outside working then, without precautions that he wasn’t taken any action to protect his mouth.  May be nothing, may be something!

Steve Guest in the current documentary,  made the point himself that he never took his difficulty in breathing seriously until it was too late….and there is another guy I’ve learnt of (know slightly) that had both the sores on the lips which had to be operated on urgently with a pucker of the mouth resulting, now to learn that he too has breathing problems.   Yes,  one of the lads…..likes his spirits (the alcoholic type)  Another oesophagus cancer perhaps in the making?.    I can’t convince my own husband to have his skin cancers looked at, both on his face and hands (as a golfer)….perhaps I could have helped someone else’s husband because men never listen to their own wives!

And there there was the other lady, on another booth at Moorabbin Town Hall, again for Liberal,  I was talking to on Saturday who wanted to know the symptoms of ovarian cancer which I ran through with her from my own experience but was quick to point out that it need not be any or all as I described, not called the silent killer for nothing.   She mentioned “a gut feeling” that all was not well….in the excitement of actually being there to hand out How to Vote for Rob Hudson, I can’t recall telling her the most important message of all.   Listen to your body!   When you get a niggling doubt about how things feel within yourself….be aware and take action please….

I had remembered seeing two articles on ovarian cancer both in the Age Nov 22 (News 2)  Herald Sun Healthwatch (p42)  on Nov 24. and told her I would put something on my website for those women who may have missed the articles themselves…..A condensed version can be found elsewhere on this website under Additional/Related Readings/Facts & Figures…..

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At 5 am, I decided to do a copy and paste job from the Facts & Figures page because I felt is was important and so many people have made my diary page “a favorite”, missing other stuff without touring around the rest of the web page…..this footnote follows on from the articles mentioned above.

Footnote: Choice remembers Professor Jobling saying to me, “people tend to focus on the numbers who die, forgetting those who don’t”. The two or three years gained could result in further treatments being found effective in the meantime. The additional time is also valuable to “get your house in order” which many others don’t get the opportunity to do so.

My initial “niggle” was low in the abdomen around the appendix and diagnosed as “constipation” by my local GP at the time – two years before I met Professor Tom Jobling and after the operation itself. He’d been called in, just in case it was cancer without me having a clue to its possibility prior to entering hospital as a suspected bleeding ulcer perhaps, So yes Ovarian Cancer symptoms can be extremely vague….One last comment that I’ve tried to make doctors aware of since (without success I feel) that for me personally prior to diagnosis, I had an excessive need to bath….to lie in the bath for perhaps an hour, at two or three in the morning, which I believe now subconsciously my body needed to rid itself of the disease…I would lie there pondering on my potty abdomen thinking I must lose some weight there. Since the operation I no longer feel the compulsion to bathe….now I can enjoy the odd one with a good book and a glass of wine, and I don’t even notice the scars any longer…..

Please listen to your body and get a second opinion, or even a third, if you within your own inner core, believe there is something wrong in spite of your first doctor’s assurances…..I should have – It is not to do with distrust in the medical profession so much as “they think they know you very well with your little quirks and sometimes don’t think outside the square”….

I still believe that focusing on a goal – in my case – return to work was a great incentive to assist in recovery…even if that doesn’t work out after the event, ignorance can be bliss at the time because by then you’ve gained the additional strength from just ‘getting well’ again to take life as it comes however painful it may become emotionally.

I received an email which is a little long to put under “Your Say” nevertheless it has great merit and needs to be read, not just by my family who rarely enter my website, but all the other “Mary’s Family” …..Just now I think my own family need distance…their participation in the documentary was very difficult, as all can see.  They were not “acting” but is an improvement on their genuine position of how they feel.  

Having spent an hour with my brother on the phone confirms deep differences within families that “until you’ve walked in my shoes” cannot really be understood.  He was one who never came near me while I was so very ill…..people don’t like to be confronted with the ugliness of the reality of very serious illness. Like the “shhhssss” makes it go away somehow…..It doesn’t!

The dirty ugly parts that get hidden under the bedcovers for the observer’s sensitivities,  but which is always part of the participant.   Truth is, that it is there, whether acknowledged by the Pro Life or not!   

As Judy Bayliss said so succinctly in Do Not Resuscitate, she wants to live, not just survive……..

Many people wanted to hug and reassure me yesterday, as I handed out How To Vote cards for the Labor Party,  how it was for them to understand my family……but for me, it will always be about Pro Choice for the individual participant “sufferers”.  It can’t always be about “family” …….at some point the most important person for consideration,  in a person’s life, is themselves.

Hi Mary

It was really really good to put the face in the photos and the voice I’ve heard on the phone all together and “see” you last night …
Somehow I feel like I “know” you a teeny-bit more now so when I read your daily blog it’s easier to feel you on the other side of it.

One other commend and that’s a big “thank you” to you family for taking part as well. Something like this isn’t easy to talk about, especially for “healthy” people or family members themselves. It’s only easier for us because we’ve gotten a bit closer to “death”, to suffering and pain etc than they have and the decision is ours to make. That seems to kick-start different emotions that most other people can’t relate to. I see it here at home with me – my father and I can very calmly talk about VE yet my mother “schizzes” and doesn’t want to hear about it. I’ve given up mentioning it – the most she hears is maybe that a letter’s been published.

Each of the people in your family were great it their own way. Kevin seemed like a lovely lovely husband ….. don’t ever let him go (says me with tears welling up in my eyes!!) You’re a lucky woman. You talking about “dying well” straight in front of your daughters must have been hard for them to listen to, let alone in front of a camera. You’re lucky to have them agree to talk about such a sensitive subject so DIRECTLY in front of the camera. They came across as lovely, caring and intelligent women who love you very much, as did your sister Joy.

Can you do me a favour Mary and read them/explain what I’m going to say below? I’ve come to all the information after my research over the years………….

A few years ago I was wondering about what the purpose of life was, especially for someone like me who is never to work again, not getting married and not having any children (and I’m ion 40 years old!) After doing research etc I found countless studies have shown that happy people are those with a purpose in their life. Whatever it is, they have a reason to get up each morning. Other different types of studies show that the happiest people are those with a passion in their life – whatever that is. Whether it’s Bill Gates or the old woman down the road – if they are passionate about something they’re the happiest.
Well, I tied these two up and said that the happiest people in society are those that have a passion for something and turn it into the “life purpose”.

So then I decided that I’d turn by support of VE into my “purpose” …. and that I’d try to do more. Ever since this realisation I’ve been much happier within myself and my place in society. I didn’t want to pass the years away sitting alone at home, with a dwindling base of friends and trying to do things like sewing, do crosswords etc. There’s a limit to how long you can spend doing this. There’s got to be more to life than just watching it go by.

And the same things would be with you, Mary. Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you’d be happy going to movies, watching TV and reading. In fact that might just bore you to death. You’re a very passionate person by nature and you’re turning into something that makes you feel good……… that you’re not passing time waiting for whatever lays ahead. Know what I mean?

So to all of your family Mary – sure, it’s OK to not agree with what Mary does, but it would be really good if you could show interest in what she’s doing so that she’s not doing it all alone (sorry, I’m just thinking that you might not all like talking about it with her or asking her etc … apologies if I’m incorrect). I know what that’s like – having nobody to share “accomplishments” with, whether it’s a letter in the paper, going on the radio, or just coming up with a good idea. It’s OK to shut her up after a bit, but she might just like to talk a little bit about it too (this assumes that she’s not talking about it for hours on end, eh Mary??!!! )

Anyway Mary – hope you’ve been able to pass on these messages to your family. She’s lucky to have you all, and we’re lucky to have HER doing everything she does for “the cause”.

Oh Mary – maybe you can tell them about me by reading my story online here as it appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.biansw.org.au/index.php?option=com_stories&act=story&id=3

Thanks everyone

South West Coast People Power candidate Mike Noske would introduce a private member’s bill if elected.

http://www.dwdv.org.au/Docs/DWDVLegislativeCharter.pdf

It is 4 pm and I have just realised I have not eaten a solitary thing today – or drank even water.   My doctors would not be happy I suspect, but food never even crossed my mind…..

A couple of surprises for me today, most of which I will keep to myself…..I would like to say in my own defence to someone who knows nothing whatsoever about me, is that I live a balanced life.  I don’t spend all day, every day seeking out ways to die.  The other side of my life was not portrayed in the documentary due to lack of timing…..Judy and Steve’s endurance tests far outweighed anything that could be told of me.

Although, accessing my website,  I would have thought I appeared to a casual observer,  a reasonably grateful sort of person for what I’ve been blessed with -  the best of families.   I love my family dearly but at the same time, I also love myself.  

Previously having been taken to task by a family member and then a very good friend to tell me that considering “suicide” is selfish, yes, to that extent,  I am selfish!   But we each have to be responsible only for our own actions.  Being a Humanist helps me enormously.

Honestly, Pro Choice is a hastened death, as is suicide, so let’s get terminology correct.   I’ve had this discussion a thousand times.

Suicide is the killing of one’s self as is euthanasia, when action is undertaken by self to end one’s own life.  Reasons why people may commit the act of suicide is what separates My Choice in Dying from people who are having a “one off”  bad hair day.   Of course, I would be mortified to know that someone I knew had chosen to taken their own life, but I would also understand that it was their life to take and end.   Their body, their life.  My Body. my life……  I looked at Steve Guest and Judy Bayliss and I know without a shadow of a doubt why I think and fervently believe in Choice for the Individual based on their needs, not mine. 

Euthanasia is not gas chambers, and holding people down while you murder them.  Euthanasia as a word,  is perhaps handled more carefully than suicide, but a rose by any other name is still a rose.   To the end of my days, I will always support Pro Choice over Pro Life or Pro Death.  I am not promoting suicide I am asking people to understand why and how people arrive at their decision to suicide or euthanasia or choose choice and dignity in dying or exit or just plain dead!

Euthanasia, by definition it is the taking of one’s own life with or without some type of assistance by agreement – It literally means “a good death” as does “palliative” mean to “cloak” …..

I do resent being classified as selfish or weak or thankless for what I have while retaining good health, and I particularly hate that people who suicide in every sense of the word,  are seen as cowards!   The easy way out???   It is not easy -   It takes great courage to die, to make that final decision.  But in the case of chronic and terminally ill people, labels such as Coward (I’ve always hated bullies!) is the last adjective that should be described when speaking with them.   People for “pity’s sake”,  if not for Christ’s sake,  are already dying slowly and painfully….the very least they should expect is legislative change that would make it easier on all people involved in the dying process from the doctors through to the relatives but most importantly – The Dying Person themselves!!!

I’m told it is impolite to use capital letters on the internet, a form of shouting I’m told.  

POLITICIANS PLEASE ACT IN PARLIAMENT TO MAKE CHOICE AND DIGNITY IN DYING A REALITY!

sorry if I get excited at this point – but I feel really annoyed at how selective people can get with euphemisms when blunt honesty tells it so much better.

I was asked yesterday point blank by two young Italian men “when you say “Do Not Resuscitate” and you collapse here in front of us right now, do you really mean it?”   To which I answered, Yes, of course!.     I have no fear of death which is a great comfort in itself.  I have nothing to fear because as my brother so succinctly put it in his interview “Mary’s idea of death is final!”

I must go and eat something, chill out, feed my birds (again), walk the dogs, and wait for my partner to come back from Marshalling at the big golf tournament.  Cook tea -  Is it too early to drink alcohol on an empty stomach?….perhaps for me today, yes it is -  the way I’m feeling!

 Just in closing I smiled as I thought of alcohol, one vice of mine,  led me to tattoos….I appreciated the open gasps of “cool” by the young folk yesterday on Flinders Street Station with their rings in noses and lips when they viewed my tattoo as a middle aged grey haired woman “joining the club” so to speak….I think they were amazed that I would go to such lengths -  as it sure has put paid to my career as a potential model!.  Stuffs my wardrobe up no end folks -  so please place it to one side should you consider having it done.

Pity it has no legality in law – but perhaps for the attending paramedic’s conscience, my point will be taken in the spirit it is intended……

Ah yes, ….I am child minding all five grand children together tonight and looking forward to it – therefore,  no alcohol whatsoever…damn…….just a moral of mine to abstain while on duty with them…

Thank you to the dozens of people who have contributed to the debate…..Remember to vote wisely tomorrow!

A timely reminder that I was previously advised that Dying with Dignity would never become a political issue in this election.   The ALP  Member who told me this is one that “did not respond “to the questionnaire.    I remember saying in all those months ago, that  I’d always thought it is the people who decide what is their voting issue of importance on the day.

Dear Mrs Walsh,

We now have more than 200 candidates for this Saturday’s State election who have recorded their support for the Dying With Dignity’s Legislative Charter. Before this Saturday, can I urge you to please take the time to find out who your election candidates are, and which ones in your electorate support the Dying With Dignity cause. Visit http://www.dwdv.org.au  and follow the link from the home page to your electorate.

Please look at the Upper House candidates and not just the Lower House. By all means, vote for the party of your choice but please consider voting for a candidate from that party who supports the Dying With Dignity Charter. There are more than 200 supporters so especially in the Upper House you are likely to find one or more from the party of your choice. Think carefully too about who you give your second and third preference to on Saturday. It may count.

Don’t dismiss the minor parties or independents. Unlike the previous Victorian parliament, it is expected that minor parties and/or independents will win one or more seats – especially in the Upper House. We need just one of these 200 + supporters from any party (in either the Upper or Lower House) to introduce a Private Member’s Bill that proposes the right to die with dignity. In that event Labor, Nationals, Greens and Democrats have indicated that they will allow their own parliamentarians a conscience vote. (At this point Liberals have not committed to allowing a conscience vote – although Ted Baillieu has expressed his own personal support for the DWD cause generally.)

We have to recognise that it is politically difficult for the major parties to INTRODUCE reform legislation on this but if an individual from their own or any other party introduces a Private Member’s Bill in the next parliament, then given the wave of support we have had from election candidates across the political spectrum, there is a good chance of it getting up.

Remember that more than 73% of the Victorian public support this and amongst nearly 250 politicians responding to our poll, supporters outnumber opposers by more than 8 to 1.

Please take the time to check out who the supporters are and with a bit of luck we will get a Bill on this debated in the next parliament with a conscience vote. Also please forward this email to others who you think might be interested in the information.

Sincerely.

Rodney Syme (President)

Today I’ve been to Parliament Steps and shared them for two hours together with a silent protest abortion group with “Life” in Red Tape across their mouths when they weren’t raising their voices in prayer.   We left each other in peace……

But as with last time, passers by were confused to see Pro Life and a Documentary, Do Not Resuscitate SBS Tonight 8.30 pm, standing side by side.  Them a large group and me, myself the loner…..

I did better.   I was able to chat with a Senior Nurse from the Peter Mac Hospital.   She took the reading matter, together with my cards.   In addition she took a photo of my tattoo saying that, as yet she’d never seen one like mine……Car drivers honked with thumbs up, as did a couple of passer bys….

30 mins off for a Vietnamese lunch today and then down to Flinders Street Station where thousands have seen my large white sign promoting the documentary.   I stood for another two hours and then called it quits – so all in all…I really feel I have given this documentary my best shot….I think I have sunburn on my sunburn!

Tonight I will be remembering Steve Guest and his brothers and honoured their courage to support Steve to the end.   I will be thinking of Judy in her struggles for maintain hope for a cure for the Multiple Sclerosis which has plagued her for 30 years.

And I will be thanking Davor Dirlic and SBS who made the Documentary possible with the assistance of teamwork at various levels unknown to me or the general public.   

Without the film maker and director coming up with the idea and making it a story through lens of a camera, there would have been no recorded history of the lives of the three people who have their own ideas about what makes life really worth living…..

I do hope the general public can relate to us in some small measure, sufficiently for the politicians to agitate for legislative change among themselves on behalf of those they represent……

9 PM and I am well and truly “stuffed” to use a vernacular.   My day started with an hour long discussion with one daughter about the ramifications of the documentary part one being screened tomorrow night.   She worries that she appears to be always crying, appears fat and unattractive….now doesn’t this sound all very familiar to me.   I reassured her that it is the message that counts – none of the family feel that we look particularly attractive except the one who hasn’t viewed it yet.   And at the end of the day, who really cares about personal appearances.  Life isn’t always full of smiles.   For many infirmed, they smile through gritted teeth for the relatives.   I did appreciate that she was acting just like any daughter,  put under the pressures no one wanted to be “interviewed” but did it for me regardless.   I can imagine that she was very happy to continue with her complicated vegetarian dish being prepared for her girl friends before my arrival interrupted her culinary delights.  

Talking of interviews,  my brother did one with the Ballarat Courier which is posted today elsewhere on this website, under Media.   The article written by Cathy Morris, November 18 (Pg22) is very accurate in its reporting,  and I do appreciate my brother contacting them, and also the Courier’s interest.   His participation actually surprised me as he shares strong spiritual beliefs, (not shared by me),  along with most of the family.   Captioned “Pair agree to disagree” does sum it up well and yet we remain respectful of each other’s differences.

Early afternoon I went and stood on the forecourt of Flinders Street Station with the perennial placard advertising the Documentary and handing out the appropriate blue cards with the one paragraph synopsis.   I was wearing the Dying with Dignity Victoria white T Shirt and I was so very grateful I took time and returned back home for a hat.  It was quite warm in the sun.    Standing for almost four hours,  I met with a Doctor, an Exit Member, a 75 year vegetarian who can’t get SBS at his house……I met up with many people who said they’d watch it.   Even a couple of Croatian gentlemen recognised the name of the Director.  An Anglican (?) Minister put his head down and rushed past me as did a couple with pursed lips…but overall people were curious and polite…..A young lad with a punk hair style and leathers also expressed an interest….I wanted almost to say I’ll show you my tattoo if you show me yours???

One young man in a distinctive De Gaulle type hat with clothes to match, told me I knew how to waste my time.  He obviously spent his creating “an image” which I admit got him noticed…at least by me, as I watched his approach.   I was aware of his style, but as he passed by with his comment, I wondered what he knew about me that I didn’t know. I never for one moment felt my time is wasted.   I just choose to use it differently to most 64 year old women…..Steve & Judy as portrayed in the Documentary leave me in no doubt as to what my energies are being used for…..I am the lucky one!

One young man hopped off his bike and approached me.   I thought it was the Right to Life guy from previous encounters but fortunately I was mistaken,  instead he told me he applauded what I was doing to promote the Documentary in appreciation of the Funding Bodies and the Film Crew.  

A lady, Meg suffering with a form of both muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis has my deepest admiration, and I gathered she held a faith which may end up being a blessing for her…….She too doesn’t want to suffer unnecessarily and hopes doctors will be kind to her.    One guy, who took perhaps four cards,  was from the Herald Sun office so I’m hoping that this documentary will replace Sports and Entertainment segments of Newsworthiness,  just long enough to make a difference, as a serious issue which needs action, not necessarily more words……

So many people have no understanding of their end of life decision making – they really believe that they only have to say “enough and the doctor “will take care of them”…..

People do not understand the difference between a Medical Enduring Power of Attorney (An agent appointed by you to act on your behalf should you become incapable of decision making)  An Agent who can be overwhelmed and influenced by the grief of close relatives who may also be split and divided in their aspirations for your recovery.  An Agent needs to be very strongly supportive of what you want – not what your loved ones would wish for you….. 

The alternative is what I am fighting for.   One own choice being legally binding on the care givers.  Not an Agent, but one’s own Living Will/Advance Directive made in advance of any unfortunate circumstance that sees you incapable at the time. 

Neither Pro Life or Pro Death but Pro Choice for the individual.  

Not the relatives, not the doctors but the “patient’s” own wishes should be the only ones to be considered.   

In Victoria, The Medical Treatment Act 1988 requires amendment to take into account the massive jumps in technology that have occurred since then.    Many people need the assurances they will not become “vegetative” like Maria Korp (Australia) & Terri Schiavo (America), lying dormant and brain dead for months and years on end…….others may be content to take their chances.   I for one, am not -  along with 73%.   

Who are the politicians listening to? if not the general public.

Who knows what Saturday’s election will bring to Victorian’s possibilities for choice and dignity in dying?

Off now to make ham sandwiches for the “lads” marshalling at the golf, kicking off at about 6 am in the morning…good luck fellows, I’ll be on Parliament steps a little later than that! 

Yes the dogs got their walk, birds fed and watered (again) and I even hung out the washing by moonlight (not really, the neighbor’s porch light next door actually!).

I’m glad I’m retired~