WHAT WILL MATTER
By Michael Josephson

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Choice Comments:   This poem was recently read at a funeral I attended under the title Live a Life that Matters and was said to be “anonymous”….Regardless, I thought it quite a beautiful piece of poetry and wished to share its words with readers yet again. I know I first heard it some years ago. 

What will matter is the manner in which we’ve died -  because the method of it,  will live on in the memory of those we’ve left behind, long after our passing has been and gone.  The memory of our going, will linger.   Dying quickly or slowly, painfully or peacefully, badly or goodly.   This will be remembered in the minds of our loved ones.

Thank you for not allowing him to suffer further.  The most precious of gifts must be the letting go of a loved one when every fiber of your being wants him with you forever.  He lives on in our memories as he lived his life.  A Good Man!

 

27 November 2007 from the Daily Record

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2007/11/26/brutal-death-of-minister-s-wife-86908-20160914/

 

Brutal Death Of Minister’s Wife

By Karen Bale

Exclusive

A KIRK minister tried to murder his wife with sleeping pills, stabbed her twice – then strangled her to finish her off.

 

Frail dementia victim Isabella Coley, 71, somehow survived the pills overdose and the knife attacks by her husband, Richard.

And she staggered bleeding into the bathroom of her home to confront him after he plunged his blade into her heart in the second knife assault.

Coley, who was standing at the sink preparing to kill himself, choked the life out of his wife of 46 years before cutting his wrists.

 

The 70-year-old churchman survived the suicide bid but hanged himself at the family home on Friday after he was released from Carstairs state mental hospital.

He was due to face a murder trial in April next year.

 

Coley claimed he killed Isabella as an act of mercy because he could no longer cope with her illness

 

But a source close to the case insisted it was cold-blooded murder, and told how Coley transferred money out of his wife’s bank account before attacking her.

The source said: “The murder was calculated, violent and gruesome.

 

“If Coley had wanted to kill his wife peacefully he could just have given her extra sleeping tablets. But instead, he stabbed her twice then throttled her when she staggered through to find him.

 

“Coley was viewed with sympathy after he killed Isabella. Everybody thought he did it out of love.

 

“But this was no mercy killing and he knew the truth would come out at his trial.”

 

Coley served the congregation at Victoria Tollcross Church in Glasgow’s east end for 33 years before retiring in 2004.

 

One churchgoer described him as a “marvellous minister” who had a great rapport with his flock. Faithful wife Isabella was Brown Owl of the local Brownie pack.

But the couple’s life began to fall apart as Isabella’s illness took its toll. As well as her dementia, she was in poor physical health after a heart operation in 2001.

According to the Record’s source, Coley hatched a callous plot to rid himself of his wife.

 

He transferred cash out of Isabella’s bank account days before the murder. The source said: “It was very calculated – as if he was sorting out the church’s books.”

 

On the night of the murder on July 12 this year, Coley gave Isabella an overdose of sleeping pills at their home in Mount Vernon, Glasgow.

But as the evening wore on, he began to fear that he had not fed her enough tablets to kill her.

 

Coley fetched a knife and plunged it into Isabella’s back. But again, she survived.

 

Determined to finish Isabella off, Coley knifed her for a second time as she lay on their bed. Our source said: “He stabbed her through her side, just under her arm, to make sure he got her heart.”

 

This time Coley was convinced he had succeeded. He left Isabella lying in a pool of blood and went to the bathroom to commit suicide.

But as he ran his hands under the hot tap to make the blood flow quicker before cutting his wrists, he was horrified to see Isabella appear behind him.

Coley turned, put his hands around his wife’s neck and strangled her. He then went through with his suicide bid.

 

The couple’s daughter, also called Isabella, discovered the bloodbath.

 

Coley was taken to hospital and appeared in court days later charged with murder.

 

He was then sent to Carstairs, but was released on Tuesday last week.

 

Coley returned to the house. And on Friday, he pinned notes to the windows telling neighbours to call the police, then hanged himself.

 

Our source believes Coley went home “for the sole purpose of killing himself”. Police forensics experts had removed almost all the furniture and the couple’s family had taken most of Isabella’s belongings.

 

“He was determined to go back to the crime scene and finish what he had started,” said the source.

 

“The police were on the brink of serving him with a summons to appear in court.

 

He knew the trial was looming and he couldn’t handle the pressure.”

 

The full horror of Isabella’s death will shock Coley’s congregation, who prayed for him and his wife at their Sunday service yesterday.

The new parish minister, Monica Michelin-Salomon, said: “I never met Mr Coley or his wife but they were much-loved and respected. They will both be in our prayers.”

 

‘Coley knew the truth would come out and he couldn’t handle the pressure’

 

Choice Comments:   The stress endured living with a dementia sufferer would be difficult on even the most stoic of people.  I believe the Minister’s action arose out of his physical and mental inability to cope with the circumstances he found himself in.   If the police were correct in it being a cold blooded murder why then did he proceed to attempt to kill himself during and after the event during his wife’s prolonged dying ?.  

 

The drawing of the money into his own account,  indicated he saw he had a future and had to make provision for living on afterwards, but at the time of his wife’s severe wounds he was already attempting to kill himself if the report above is to be believed.   He either had the intention to make provision for living alone or to kill himself.   The fact he attempted both was an indication of the stress levels the man was living with. 

 

I believe the Minister is innocent of murder and did in fact, attempt to relieve his wife of the burden of life without him by attempting to kill her and eventually succeeding as he also attempted his own taking of life and failing the first time, eventually succeeded.

 

He was not a young man with any considered future.   He had nothing to gain by his wife’s death but the release from the stress of her care.   Because he was unable to cope and the Health Authorities could not see his distress in time they both died a horrendous death. 

 

 A Living Will duly signed by both parties could have protected their lives independently of each other’s needs.   An Advance Directive signed prior to the onset of the Dementia could have prevented a very ugly result for the family left behind to deal with its trauma.   Of course the Trial was looming and he couldn’t handle the pressure…..that’s why so many suicide….the pressure of coping become unsustainable and the mind burst with the pain of it!

 

It is why Activists fight so hard for the Right to Die movement in the face of intolerable circumstances.   He may well have chosen to take only himself away from the stress of the wife had he felt there was a “Choice”….   The Minister was not an evil man but he was a desperate one!  His spirit, I believe is at peace with his God,

 

“We elect people to represent us and Not the Lord”, an On Line Opinion Article written by Brian Holden, dated November 14:  I included his entire article because as a Humanist I share his views as stated in other fields of interest to me.

When Kevin Andrews represented the Lord and not us

The first legal voluntary euthanasia in the world took place in the Northern Territory. Bob Dent calmly said goodbye to the world as he pushed a button on an apparatus which delivered into his blood circulation a series of three drugs. He died peacefully. He died with all his mental faculties intact. He died with dignity.

That was as far as it got. Through a private members bill, Kevin Andrews successfully worked to have the Northern Territory’s voluntary euthanasia decision overturned by the federal parliament.

He argued that:

• voluntary euthanasia may not be voluntary, ignoring the fact that volition is absolutely integral to Phillip Nitschke’s method as used by Bob Dent;
• palliative care is the viable alternative to suicide, ignoring the fact that Bob Dent and others commit suicide because their palliative care fails them;
• if an easy method of suicide was available, people who were not terminally ill would use it. Of what business is it of Andrews to keep people on Earth who don’t want to be here?   

Andrews was on God’s business. He and his colleagues believe that God does not approve of voluntary euthanasia. National surveys consistently show that at least 70 per cent of the public approve of adequately controlled voluntary euthanasia. Democratically elected people hijacked our democracy in support of their emotional attachment to a belief based on absolutely no evidence.

John Howard and Kevin Rudd mix it with the enlightened

In our fast-moving society, the once inspiring atmosphere created by gothic arches, organ music and stained glass windows is no longer enough. The new medium is the large auditorium and the electricity generated by up to 3,500 people holding up their arms and crying out to a big guy in the sky to make them lucky, while those on the stage work the crowd often to a throbbing musical beat.

In contrast to the usual indoctrination in classes spread over years, crowd dynamics fast-track the simplistic Pentecostal message. That message is sold as a quick-fix for a feeling-lost problem. In this context, discovering Jesus is somewhat analogous to a bachelor meeting a spinster at a dance.

The leaders of this new look say that they are simply being more relevant to people’s desires. They say that people don’t desire sacrifice as preached by the old church but really desire success and will obtain it by “discovering God’s amazing financial plan for you”.

As expected, this eccentricity has been imported from the USA where 53 per cent of the population believe that God made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs and the president prays daily for guidance in his war plans. Hillsong in Sydney now has a greater attendance than the total for all the Anglican churches in Australia.

John Howard got up on stage at Hillsong in front of a huge euphoric congregation and sucked in the atmosphere as if he was the star performer at a rock concert. The man was not there just to promote himself. Here he was at home. This was his mob.

Howard was just being Howard, but Kevin Rudd got up on the stage of the CityLife congregation in Melbourne. He claims that he has mixed feelings about the Pentecostal approach. So why was he there at all? He admitted it to Tony Jones on the ABC – he wanted the Pentecostals to think nice things about Labor.

The Family First Party may score a low primary vote, but picks up many preferences from voters who are unaware of its strong Pentecostal connection.

In Sydney there is the state seat of Greenway and the federal seat of Mitchell. Both sitting Liberal members are prominent members of the Hillsong congregation.

The closest we came to institutionalising baseless propaganda

Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen (of Fitzgerald Inquiry fame) who thought aboriginal mythology to be laughable (but very unlaughable if it got in the way of a bulldozer) and who had concluded that Nobel Lauriat Archbishop Tutu was a witchdoctor, had a crack at making creation science available in the Queensland public education system.

This was no joke. The proposal came out of a state premier’s mouth. This was a threat to the core of our free-thinking society. Once baseless propaganda is sanctified by the state, then penalties for heresy handed down by the courts will eventually follow. Many who heard Joh’s proposal were struck with the same cold fear their parents must have felt when Darwin was bombed.

There is not one plank in the creation scientist’s platform which cannot be demolished by genuine science. There could hardly be a more dangerous move than to have rubbish publicly funded as a serious scientific study. Fortunately, Joh’s dream got no further than his support for a weird cure for cancer.

Evidence shaped to support scripture at taxpayer’s expense

Faith-based schools which must teach science subjects to prepare their students for state exams are verbally passing on a message to their biology students which is not in the approved texts.

In an effort to salvage the concept of the soul which is fundamental to all religions, the verbal message is that the evolution of the species is one explanation and special creation of the species is another. The student is left to choose. The implication here is that there is a 50-50 chance that the evolution concept could be wrong.

The chance that the principle of the evolution concept could be wrong is so vanishingly small as to be, for all practical purposes, zero. At our expense, the students are being manipulated to accept fiction as fact.

The only reason that religions have such an investment in schools is that the church elders desire to manipulate young unquestioning minds. Howard and Rudd see nothing wrong with this.

A by-product of having scientifically illiterate parliamentarians is that scientific researchers have to beg for funding.

Finally – let us move to get rid of a silly ritual

When a parliamentary session opens, the prime minister leads with the Lord’s Prayer. In this building which is the product of awesome technology arising out of discoveries in pure science, the members can be heard reciting an ancient writing in the hope that some ethereal being is listening.

You can have no thought or feeling unless millions of particles move in your body. They might be molecules, atoms or sub-atomic particles such as electrons. While the parliamentarians may not know it, their praying is an appeal that God will move particles around in their brains in such a way that good decisions will be made.

The sole reason that we have material existence is that the interplay of the physical laws remain absolutely inviolate. It is all the rules obeyed exactly – or it is nothing. This is the essence of reality. It is the holy tabernacle of physics.

If the creator was to stick a metaphorical finger into the mechanism and move particles in a politician’s brain contrary to where the laws of physics dictated that they were to go, we would not have any inviolate mechanism. Like a pinprick to a balloon, the creator would have undone “his” grand plan. No more Universe!

My friend dying of yet another tumor wrote this article of encouragement to others a couple of years ago and I am sharing it again with you now.   She continues to hang on to life with the same tenaciousness she became famous for among those who knew her.

  In reading this article again, I am reminded of how hard “Catherine”fought to get back to reasonable health each time the cancer developed in her body.   It is all one has left at the end of the day.  The will and the fight to live.  The body beautiful does not die gracefully which is why for many, the artificial means of medication should be a viable alternative. 

 And again yesterday I was talking to another friend of 89 who is just so very tired of living each day, she is willing herself not to wake up in the morning.   There is a place in our compassionate society to cater for the needs of the frail elderly of sound mind, and the terminally ill.

 

DAFFODIL DAY ARTS AWARDS – THE CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA

 

CANCER LOVES MY BODY

 

At the age of 64, March 2000 I was found to have bowel cancer.  The operation was successful, followed with 8 months of chemo.

 

My family seeing my recovery understood my decision to retire and get on with the life style I liked, swimming, golf, bridge, plus a regular exercise program.

 

However, cancer had other ideas; in December 2003 I was diagnosed with lung cancer, lower left lobe, which had to be removed.  The operation was a success and the specialist pleased with my recovery.  Once again six months later I was in my sport programs.

 

In 2005 cancer was located in the Left Lung, resulting in the need to remove my complete lung.  I was lucky the operation was a success leaving no sign of cancer I immediately started a walking and breathing program.  My Oncologist started me on Chemotherapy.  Chemo this time knocked me about. 

 

My family was very upset as they knew I worked hard at keeping healthy, but they were to learn like I, cancer does not care for feelings of family and friends.

 

August 2006 was devastating to both me and family – a Brain Tumor.  I was knotted about –unable to read, speech was affected and minor balance problems.  When my friends, like my family became aware of my state they were shocked.

 

My son took over my life – getting me to the doctors, and checking on me regularly till I had the operation.  The care by my family, particularly my son living near by, and the support of my son who flew in from Canada gave me moral support to keep fighting.  All my family were behind me, calls from my sister and nephew in America, son and grand children in Queensland, and my many relatives here in Melbourne, plus the support of my many friends – this all helps with one’s recovery.    

 

Throughout my Radiation Therapy I would not have managed without my family and friends driving me to the hospital, five times a week, waiting patiently and then driving me home over the monthly treatment.  Plus their other support in the form of company taking me out to a show, dinner or ringing to converse and let me know they were there.

 

Psychotherapy, speech pathologist and the support from Palliative Care visitor played a huge roll in getting me on the road to recover.  All these vital services also assisted my son, who was caring for me.  It helped him to understand my feeling of frustration, my limitations of physical activities, and independence loss.   My other cancers had never left me felling this way. 

 

Not being allowed to drive was quite an adjustment, however a good bus service plus my love of walking helped me manage and we also have a great support systems, e.g. delivery by super markets. Fortunately after 3 months I was allowed to drive.

 

Getting out and playing Bridge was a wonderful therapy for me during this period.  In December 2006 my son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren arrived from Canada, for twelve months. This has given me more determination to fight Cancer.  My sons  and daughter-in-law love of golf, has also encouraged me to get out and play, in late January 2007, I started playing golf again, playing 9 holes with my grandchildren to a regular 18 holes weekly in February..

 

For my general recovery I thank my Doctors, family and friends who support was always there.  One has to work hard with exercise, eating correctly and having a positive attitude to fight cancer and enjoy life. 

There is help,  not a cure.

 

   

21 November 2007 from The New Paper (Singapore)

 

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,148343,00.html

 

DYING WITH DIGNITY

Hospice care is limited in Vietnam, where S’porean doctors have been fighting for better medical facilities

IT’S where the terminally ill go to die in Hanoi, Vietnam.

By Genevieve Jiang in Vietnam

21 November 2007

IT’S where the terminally ill go to die in Hanoi, Vietnam.

It is in these narrow, usually overcrowded wards that doctors and nurses toil to make sure that patients spend their last days with as little pain as possible.

But there are only nine doctors and 14 nurses taking care of up to 70 patients at any one time at the palliative care unit of the National Cancer Hospital.

With only 35 beds, it is not unusual for two or three patients to share a bed, Dr Doan Luc said. He is the head of the unit.

He told The New Paper: ‘It is a situation we would like to improve but can do little about at the moment. We do not have much resources, so we have to do the best we can, with any help that we can get.’

Since 2005, about 90 medical workers in Vietnam have been trained by a team of Singapore doctors and nurses in palliative care.

The hospital is one of only three in Vietnam to have such a unit.

It opened in 2000 as the first one in the country to provide pain relief and care for the terminally ill.

A study by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health last year revealed that more than 250,000 people in the country were living with Aids, while about 150,000 people were diagnosed with cancer each year.

At Hanoi’s National Cancer Hospital, the load on the medical workers is shared by families, who pack hospital corridors to keep watch over their loved ones 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When The New Paper visited the hospital last week, we saw a display of quiet stoicism amid death and despair.

A husband sat silently next to his sick wife, caressing her hand.

A daughter put her arms around her ailing mother, as she lay next to her on the hospital bed.

In the garden outside the wards, a son and daughter gently massaged their father’s arms with herbs to ease the swelling after an injection.

In another corner of the garden, a stranger listened to a woman and her son pouring out their anxiety about a loved one battling lung cancer for the past five months.

And at the paediatric oncology ward, a mother softly patted the backs of her 4-year-old son and a stranger’s daughter as they retched into a basin she held.

Next to the hospital beds in the wards are makeshift beds that family members had transported from home so that they can camp overnight.

One such caregiver is Mr Pham Ngoc Linh, 30, who has been keeping vigil by his mother’s bedside for the past week.

CARE FALLS ON FAMILY

Mr Pham told The New Paper in halting English: ‘The duty of caring for a sick family member is not supposed to fall on the shoulders of doctors and nurses, but on us.

‘In our culture, we believe only our family should feed us medicine.’

That is why Mr Pham cleans his mother, changes her clothes, gives her medicine, and tenderly massages her limbs and back to ease her pain daily.

He helps turn her every few hours to minimise the chances of her developing bed sores. When she is thirsty, he gently wets her lips with freshly squeezed orange juice.

Mr Pham’s mother, Madam Phan Thi Cuc, 60, has end-stage cancer of the pancreas. She can no longer walk or eat on her own. Even speaking is a struggle.

Doctors have given her, at most, a few weeks to live.

Mr Pham and his family are prepared for the inevitable. He said: ‘We have made funeral arrangements according to her wishes. She will be buried in the village where she was born, in Ha Nam province – about an hour’s drive from Hanoi.’

Mr Pham shares the caregiving duties with his 64-year-old father, Mr Pham Van Tung, and two sisters, aged 31 and 28.

He has taken time off his work in a remittance company indefinitely to do this. He and his father are usually there in the mornings and afternoons, while his sisters take over in the evenings.

Madam Phan’s illness was discovered early last year when she suffered incessant abdominal pains and had severe diarrhoea for several weeks.

In October last year, she had a tumour in her pancreas removed, but her condition didn’t improve. The cancer cells had spread to her blood, Mr Pham said.

After the operation, doctors said she would probably have only six months to live.

But the family refused to give up and gave her traditional medicine, boiling herbs for her every day. Her condition improved, but early this month, she suffered a relapse. She also vomited blood.

Doctors found that her kidneys had failed.

Mr Pham said: ‘Now, every day that she is able to open her eyes is a bonus.

‘We just want her to live the rest of her days as comfortably as possible. We will be by her side, holding her hand when she dies. We want her to die with dignity.’

And he is thankful for what the Singapore team has done.

One of the team’s major contributions was pushing to make morphine more readily available at the hospital.

Madam Phan is given morphine to ease her pain every four hours.

Mr Pham said: ‘Without the drug, I cannot imagine the agony that my mother will have to go through. Now she can die peacefully, with little pain.’

 
Doctors, nurses not trained

WHEN asked to take the pulse of a patient, the Vietnamese nurse reached for the wrist and held it tentatively.

But she wasn’t wearing a watch. Neither was there a clock in the ward.

When Associate Professor Cynthia Goh first arrived at the National Cancer Hospital in Hanoi more than two years ago, she was surprised at its level of nursing care.

She said: ‘The nurse didn’t know how to take a patient’s pulse. When I asked her what she was doing, she said sheepishly, ‘just pretending’.’

The senior consultant and head of palliative medicine at Singapore’s National Cancer Centre was in Hanoi to train medical workers in palliative care, a branch of medicine aimed at providing pain relief and care for the terminally ill.

Prof Goh said: ‘During our first few visits, we wondered whether we were just wasting our time because our aim was to teach palliative care, not basic nursing. But it all begins with basic nursing so we stuck on. And it was worth it.’

It was 2005 then, and nurses sorted out medicine on straw mats strewn on the hospital floor.

Medical workers didn’t use gloves, masks or gowns when handling chemotherapy drugs.

Patients’ progress were not properly recorded. Doctors did not know how to assess a patient’s level of pain.

And those who had undergone surgery were not given morphine, but aspirin or paracetamol.

Prof Goh said: ‘No one could tell me why the hospital didn’t have stock. But I found out it was a complicated process to get hold of the drug.’

Over the past three years, some 89 Vietnamese doctors and nurses have been trained.

The project, which ended last Friday, was part of the Singapore International Foundation’s Singapore Volunteers Overseas programme, and it received $125,000 in funding from the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation.

Minister tore down my posters: Nitschke

November 24, 2007 – 7:15PM

 

Euthanasia campaigner and independent candidate Philip Nitschke has accused Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews of personally tearing down his campaign material near a polling booth.

Dr Nitschke, who is standing against Mr Andrews in the Melbourne seat of Menzies, told AAP he planned to lodge a complaint with the Australian Electoral Commission, after a woman claimed she saw the minister ripping down posters.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews, Kate Walshe, said: “It’s not true, it’s absolute rubbish”.

She said no one else from the minister’s office had taken down Dr Nitschke’s posters either.

Dr Nitschke said he confronted Mr Andrews about the claim today and that the minister essentially told him to “grow up”.

“I was pretty unhappy with his response when I challenged him,” Dr Nitschke said.

He said Mr Andrews’ actions showed “a degree of desperation”.

“It wasn’t just one of his workers, it was the minister himself,” he said.

He said he had noticed some of his bunting shoved in a pile beneath a tree before the woman told him what she saw.

“She’s a pretty credible person, she’s got no interest in making it up,” he said.

Dr Nitschke said election day had been a long one for him and his supporters, most of whom are aged in their 70s.

“It’s a hard day working when you’re that old, trying to hand out cards to people who aren’t always friendly,” he said.

© 2007 AAP

Choice Comments:  Dr Philip Nitschke polled 2503 votes standing as an Independent against Kevin Andrews, who has had a hollow win in retaining his Seat of Menzies, with his Prime Minister, Mr John Howard himself losing his seat.  And following today’s revelation that Mr Peter Costello winning the Seat of Higgins will not contest the Opposition Leadership, leaving the Liberal Party to struggle to find a competent Leader that the Australian people will accept.   It would not be Andrews or Abbott!  Mr Rudd as our new Labor Prime Minister, will not support any legislation being as conservative as Mr Howard realistically speaking.  Mind you in his Victory Speech he did say that his door was always open to a worthwhile cause!

From a political perspective the Voluntary Euthanasia cause has not been enhanced with the loss of one of the most feisty politician, Lyn Allison, the Leader of the Democrats who will serve out her term until June 2008.   The incoming Senate will need one more Senator than the Labor and Greens combined,  to process Bills easily through Parliament.  

Senator Joyce will not block reform of Workchoices Legislation, but that doesn’t help our cause, because he is a full on practicing Catholic who assists Right to Life members in how to achieve their political aims and objectives at the expense of Choice for the individual. 

We cannot rely on the Family First Party to be compassionate to any legislation proposed to help our cause.   Interesting statistics have a person who received less than 2% of the vote having the power to curtail the Right to Die of which at least 70% of Australians have supported legislative reform.  That’s democracy, Western style??

 Election Day today – Know who you’re voting for to assist with Legislation in the future.   Senator Brown does keep trying on our behalf.  We owe him to remember this past effort.

Monday 29 January 2007

Greens ready with euthanasia bill

Greens Leader Bob Brown will introduce a private member’s bill to the Senate next week to rekindle the debate on euthanasia.

“A decade after the Northern Territory laws were overridden by Canberra, my bill proposes a similar law for death with dignity for Australia. It is mostly a state legislative matter but public feeling is strongly behind the right of terminally ill people, if supported by loved ones and doctors, to be able to die with dignity. That is what the bill proposes,” Senator Brown said.

“I was stunned last year when both the government and opposition blocked debate on a Greens motion “that the Senate supports the right of Australians to die with dignity”.

“It is as if both the government and opposition don’t even want to debate the issue,” Senator Brown said.

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603

Dear Mrs Walsh,

Where do each of the candidates in your seat stand on dying with dignity law reform?

Just a reminder before casting your vote tomorrow, you can check your candidate positions on dying with dignity at the DWDV website.  Simply click here.  Please consider voting for, (or at least giving a preference to), a candidate who supports law reform.  Remember every vote counts.

 Also a reminder that in the seat of Menzies, Philip Nitschke is standing against Kevin Andrews

 

Neil Francis

President DWDV

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/eveningstandard/4281767a20379.html

Martin’s trust aims for ‘dignity havens’
By JO MYERS – Feilding Herald | Tuesday, 20 November 2007

Lesley Martin will always be seen as the public face of the call to legalise voluntary euthanasia, but she is looking to the day when shecan step aside and let the trust she has founded, the Dignity New Zealand Trust, carry on without her.

The trust’s objective is to see legislation introduced in New Zealand that will make voluntary euthanasia legal.

Ms Martin compares the position of the trust to that of the hospice movement.

“We’re in the same position they were in 30 years ago, trying to address the needs of the dying and having to fundraise through garage sales and sausage sizzles.”

She says the trust wants to establish “dignity havens” where people can be cared for and, in a supportive environment, find out about voluntary euthanasia.

“Dignity havens would offer a choice for people and they would allow hospices to maintain their own philosophical stance.

“It’s about giving people choices, parallel options.”

Ms Martin says the trust has had no “formal dialogue” with the hospice movement, but nor has she had any response when she has talked about the parallel options.

She says she has always respected that fact that some people hold opposing views and will never change their minds.

“You will never hear me demeaning other people’s point on view.”

She believes that eventually New Zealand will have legislation allowing voluntary euthanasia. When that happens, the trust will have the infrastructure in place to make it a real choice.

“That was the problem in the Northern Territory [when voluntary euthanasia was made legal]. There was no infrastructure to support it. If there is no infrastructure all sorts of ad hoc things happen. I have to work today for 10 years down the track.”

Ms Martin acknowledges that her name is the one people associate with the campaign to permit voluntary euthanasia, but she says the trust goes beyond her.

“It’s not at the point yet where it can carry on without me, but that’s my goal. It’s not just Lesley Martin.”

She believes the next time Parliament debates the issue – there is another private member’s bill waiting in the ballot box – there will be even more support than the last time.

In 2003, a private member’s bill, on which MPs exercised a conscience vote, was defeated by 60 votes to 58 with one non-vote and one abstention.

The next time she hopes MPs will vote according to the wish of their constituents, not necessarily according to their own conscience.

She says several polls on the possible introduction of voluntary euthanasia have been carried out and in every case, 60 to 75 percent of people, depending on the wording of the question asked, have supported it.

“So we know the numbers are there.”

The trust now has eight regional groups around the country, one of them in Palmerston North.

In an effort to raise the trust’s profile, Dignity New Zealand is holding a fundraising evening in Feilding this Sunday evening.

It’s designed to be a fun evening where people can enjoy good wine, good coffee and some great desserts, Ms Martin said.

Palmerston North entertainer Karl Perigo is providing the entertainment.

Ms Martin said although the trust is a registered charitable organisation, it does not receive any official funding.

“We literally raise money by holding garage sales and sausage sizzles.”

The fundraiser is at the St John Ambulance rooms in Bowen Street, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at the FeildingInformation Centre for $10 or by phoning Ms Martin on 353-7350. There will also be door sales.

Choice Comments:

I don’t agree with Lesley that we need formalised  “infrastructure” in place.

 What dying people need is a good doctor to provide a prescription for a lethal drug, that could be administered in the same Hospice, Hospital, Home, whatever that currently dispenses Morphine in drips!

The dying process happens regardless of who is in charge of an organisation surrounding the terminally or chronically ill.   People may not want to have a Hospice type environment around them as they die.   Once Australians died at home and were kept at home until burial time.  Did you know that a dead body may be returned from a hospital,  to the family home pending the formal funeral service in Australia, even today?     Many prefer to die at home. 

Dying shouldn’t become another bureaucratic nightmare of psychologist and doctor  signatures to prove sanity within the dying process.    Just providing choice for the prescription should be sufficient to make everyone happy about the inevitable demise of us all!   Our doctors could hand over to Right to Die Health Care Workers or even a relative if they have a problem assisting a differently abled person to actually administer the drug.

 

 

I’ve had a good week and a bad week all at once on different fronts!

One good week duty,  was that I got to deliver a good friend home after eight weeks in hospital, rarely believing that such a day would arrive for at least six of those eight weeks.   My friend finds me a bit of a trial because we are equally passionate about entirely different interests bar for one, choice for the individual.   Whether that choice be for voluntary euthanasia, gay marriages, abortion, religions,  voting choices, we hold a general consensus of opinion about these issues.  They are for the individual to decide for themselves.   In summarizing what makes our friendship “work” I’ve come to the conclusion. it is because we allow our tolerances for things we disagree on, to be shared with equal passion,  to those we don’t.

I gave my daughter the Elna sewing machine, along with instructions on “how to” thread elastic through small clothes.   Recommended a mutually talented friend for further advice because I am pretty dumb about the intricates of dressmaking.    I had a Mother, Daughter afternoon where only conversation and food flowed……I delivered four bags of clothes to the Salvos….good stuff that I’ve outgrown because, let’s be blunt! I’ve got fat again!….

I read a comment elsewhere  about the writer would vote for me should I stand for parliament, and I gave that comment consideration.   I’ve heard it said previously  in a number of forums,  actually which can be interpreted as “I’m different”.   I am a single issues candidate and would be incapable of agreeing to something in public that I fundamentally opposed in private. 

 I believe passionately in the right to free speech with exception to ugly and offensive, but it seems sometimes that “right” is being slowly eroded so as to cover up what the interested parties don’t want the general public to know.  I believe that attacking a system which is not seen as “Just”,  is morally responsible, and I feel, people “who can’t be bothered”, even if they agree with the sense of injustice, are basically lazy individuals.  I don’t hold with their “choice” to do nothing! because then change will not occur if enough people don’t “get involved”!

Last night I attended the Liberty Victoria AGM and the keynote speaker was David Marr, a Sydney based journalist, late of Media Watch.   Along with the Host, Julian Burnside, really intelligent discussion developed about the Rule of Law (and, I feel how Australians are slowly losing it).    As a Group, Libertarians may be seen as some kind of “radical” group to be feared as if we too don’t have the interest of Australians at heart.  Political Parties don’t want Groups like Civil Liberties and Liberty Victoria working hard to ensure that our Judges, Lawyers, Solicitors and attempt at, Journalists,  to stay above the “Politics” when it comes to the Rule of Law and our rights which under Terrorist Legislation can be politically manipulated at the expense of the individual.  The media may sensationalize one contentious issue about an individual that provokes a public outcry against libertarians but on the whole, there is a place in society for Governments to be held in check and responsible for their actions.  Avoid a Dictatorship by being aware of what your Government’s Business is!

During my “good” week I attended the funeral of a particularly well loved friend of mine from way back when.   A gardener I’d worked with in Schools, and who had been paralyzed for the past five years following one stroke and then a further four.   I had willed him to die 4.5 years ago after the first major stroke left him bed ridden and dependent.   He too wanted to die but was not allowed to!  Eventually modern medicine allowed him the dignity to die when in spirit, he’d died a very long time ago!

One friend home, one friend actively dying since September, and one buried this week!

My “bad week” is continuing:

But I won’t share those details in this forum…..