Gosh, it is just too hot for words! 40 degrees and staying!, can’t sleep, can’t be bothered doing anything much……
I am taking so much stuff to try and help my immune system to get upwardly mobile and working again….feeling exhausted from doing nothing and all I can think is, thank goodness I’m not working any more….that I don’t have to drag this body anywhere today…..
On Monday I took off the morphine patch I’d had prescribed for bone pain, which remains undiagnosed but which is definitely not bone cancer!
I realised last week my ten year anniversary went unnoticed from being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Now I believe I am cured!!! ha ha..when I pointed out to my other half (better?) that I missed the bells and whistle of a formal celebratory dinner, he pointed out that I was in no physical shape to enjoy any celebrations….But that was last week! I thought about asking for a rain check and then realised it wouldn’t be the same. The moment had been lost!
Never mind, I will just try and survive today and let next week take care of itself…….
A strong advocate for choice and dignity in dying makes the following suggestions to the rest of us.
“the fact that the members of EXIT & the societies are elderly is a big
reason why we don’t behave like other advocacy organisations. We
don’t have any real online advocacy and very little public displays of
objections etc ….
-there are few members online – not many at all.
-there are few members that can get out and participate in a public
meeting or march (I was at one of them and there were about 15 people
only ….)
But one thing that the elderly members will generally have is children
and grandchildren …. so that 1 member might have 2 children, 4 or 6
grandchildren …. and maybe some close friends too.
I hear you all saying that their kids don’t have anything to do with
their parents and VE etc….
THIS is where EXIT and the societies could start to put certain ideas
etc forward with their members.
Firstly – the easiest example I can give is grandchildren. People who
are grandchildren of our members are probably 15 – 35 years old (?).
People of this age are very
- open minded
- into things like human rights
- into things like wanting to be heard
- would LOVE to have a grandparent acting in such a way as to be
trying to change the laws and do something good (be a type of “radical”)
- would be really PROUD of their grandparent for having the guts to
want to be heard.
….—-> chances are that if the grandchild thought that the
grandparent was seriously going to do something “outragious” and in
the public eye (where there are going to be police present etc) they
might even like to go along and push their grandparent’s wheelchair.
They might like to go along and be PROUD of their grandparent.
Can anybody from the states see how this can be very very useful if we
only try to start “rallying the troops” in this way of thinking…..
Can it work??
Then you’ve got the member’s adult children – is ther ea way that the
elderly VE member can get their 40 or 50 year old children to help
their parent take part in anything? To join in too? (etc etc)
Can you see where I’m coming from? This was something else I thought
of while I was in bed …. so I haven’t thought it through more than this.
Can we PLEASE discuss this a bit more because in my experience it’s
only by discussing things – thrashing out ideas – that you come to
other ideas too. The above may not be correct but it might lead us to
something else” …..
name deleted
Footnote: Dear heart, there is only so much talking the elderly, sick and frail can do. We are too busy saving our energy for living with whatever means we have left to us. Just recently I’ve been quite ill with as yet an undiagnosed ailment which has been extremely debilitating. I hadn’t showered in four days until this morning, I couldn’t bend, reach, walk, or lie without pain….I believe until younger and fitter people pick up the cudgels and run with the ideas then I’m afraid this generation is slowing down fast. I thought about a running diary just to keep track with the general public but it was too much effort quite frankly.
Those who want a hastened death, I believe, will have to make their own arrangements. Without Government Legislation pending, we have no alternative but to seek our own Counsel and act on it at the appropriate time. I know I am not relying on anyone to help me……
Email received from a contributor: Is there any one living in Sydney and able to attend and perhaps let me know the outcome by email?
“I stumbled on this while I was surfing on a different topic – Philip will be involved in a public debate
”Covered by The Sydney Morning Herald and broadcast nationally by ABC Radio and ABC Digital Television, the programs are designed to reach a wide audience and attract as speakers the top experts, specialists and passionate advocates for both sides of each issue to be debated.”
Speakers include Dr Philip Nitschke, Green’s leader Bob Brown and Professor Peter Baume for the motion, with The Hon Tony Abbott and Father Frank Brennan against.
We should legalise euthanasia
3 February 2009
Some people suffer terrible deaths – riven by uncontrollable pain, denied the dignity of choice, willing but unable to end life without the aid of others.
Yet deliberately to end a human life is, for many, always wrong – an affront to nature, a crime against humanity, a sin against God.
When the terminally ill ask us to help them to die, then should a fatal act of compassion in every circumstance be proscribed by law?
Speakers
For:
* Dr Philip Nitschke is director and founder of Exit
International, the world’s leading organisation for advocacy of
voluntary euthanasia.
* Senator Bob Brown is a Greens Senator and trained medical
doctor, and is sponsor of a private member’s Bill supporting
legalisation of euthanasia.
* Professor Peter Baume is a former Federal Health Minister, a
Liberal Senator and patron of the NSW Euthanasia Society.
Against:
* Hon Tony Abbott is a former Federal Health Minister and
pro-life advocate.
* Father Frank Brennan SJ AO is a distinguished Jesuit scholar
and author.
* Dr Maria Cigolini is a GP who has worked in the community,
home, institutional settings and hospitals providing extended and palliative care for 20 years. She trained in Palliative Care at
> Melbourne University and is on the Medical Advisory Committee of
> Longueville Private Hospital in Sydney, which specialises in
> palliative and aged care. She receives referrals for patients in the treatment phase of advanced cancers and diseases, as well as in the end of life phase, and has contributed cases for papers used in ethical discussions on end of life decision making. She is a clinical teacher in General Practice at the University of Sydney.
Chair:
Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre.
Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene> College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy.
He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for
Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of
companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York. Simon has been Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre since shortly after it was founded.
Footnote: Why simply can’t it be proven to be ethical to allow each person the dignity to die in their own way. If you look at the people speaking against euthanasia (a good death) you will see they are Christian orientated. The vast majority of Australians whether they believe in a God of any creed still want a peaceful death. Some of us want it in a brief span of time so as not to suffer needlessly when death in inevitable. Others may choose for religious reasons to believe that suffering in this life will help their cause in the next life.
There are thousands and thousands of people who given a choice would prefer a hastened death with minimal suffering and while I respect others rights to influence their own beliefs for their own needs, I believe others should have the same respect shown to an alternative point of view.
The right to life advocates talk of the sanctity of life when the reality is they should be addressing the sanctity of death. The term “REST In PEACE” has been derived out of so many people not having a restful life while actually dying, slowly and miserably for all those who love them and witness their pain.
How many of us breath a massive sigh of relief at the time of death of a loved person….Precisely because they are no longer suffering. Mouth open, glazed eyes, unable to communicate….who is the Jesuit scholar that thinks this is preferable to a quick PAD?
ARTS entrepreneur Kym Bonython is urging the state’s politicians to give him the right to die.
ARTS entrepreneur Kym Bonython is urging the state’s politicians to give him the right to die.
Mr Bonython, 88, has cheated death several times and now wants the right to choose how he meets his fate. In a column in today’s Advertiser, the daredevil, entrepreneur and arts lover says MPs should pass euthanasia legislation before State Parliament.
“Some good friends of mine have died painful and lingering deaths, and I know that, given the chance, they would have sought their right to have more control at the end of their lives,” Mr Bonython writes.
“I know that 81 per cent of the population supports such a choice, and that the views of a small minority currently holds sway, which is a real cause for concern.
” . . . Most people want to control their lives and, as part of that, their deaths. I am no different.”
Mr Bonython, who insists he still has “plenty to live for at the moment”, says that compassion for people in pain suffering a terminal illness should prompt an overhaul of euthanasia laws.
Through his long, interesting life, Mr Bonython has raced cars and speedboats, had several potentially fatal accidents and illnesses, and been described as the “godfather” of jazz and art in South Australia.
For his contribution to the quality of South Australian life through the arts, he received the Premier’s Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s Ruby Awards.
In 2007, he was honoured with a coveted Adelaide Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement award for his work in the arts and music.
“I have cheated death on several occasions in my life. I have been gored by a jersey bull and survived a hydroplane crash, which severely damaged my leg to the extent that I was on crutches for 14 months,” Mr Bonython says.
” . . . As a competitor at Rowley Park speedway in later years, I was involved in spectacular crashes that were reported internationally.
“After riding motorbikes, I must say that being reduced to riding a gopher is a very poor substitute.”
In South Australia, actively helping someone die is considered murder but it is legal to withhold lifesaving care with the consent of the patient. Greens MLC Mark Parnell has tabled a Bill in Parliament seeking to position euthanasia as a form of medical treatment to which people can consent.
Mr Bonython is urging MPs to pass the Bill.
“To the Members of Parliament who must decide on the voluntary euthanasia legislation before them, I say to you it is time for compassion,” he writes. “I am not talking here about choosing to die because your wife dies or you become depressed; it is about being incurably ill with no chance of recovery.
“Obviously there have to be checks and balances to support the legislation, as well as oversight and monitoring, but that is what Parliament is for – to come up with the best legislation to satisfy the needs of the electorate.”
Mr Parnell said the right to escape unbearable suffering should be enshrined in law. “The issue is that people every day are helped to end their lives as an inevitable consequence of the provision of pain-relieving drugs,” he said.
“The doctors know that prescribing this amount will kill the person, but provided their intent was to alleviate pain they’re OK. If a person has had enough, if they’ve tried all the palliative care options . . . my Bill allows them to exit with some dignity, in the manner of their choosing.”
Last month, outspoken euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke launched a new euthanasia device – made from common hardware items – in Adelaide. Premier Mike Rann and anti-euthanasia lobbyists condemned the promotion of the device as “dangerous and irresponsible”.
Family First MLC Dennis Hood said the move to legalise euthanasia was a “potentially precarious retrograde step”.
“It’s not possible to build in absolute safeguards in legislation dealing with life-and-death matters,” he said.
“The current law is actually very good. While it does not allow euthanasia, it does allow doctors to treat the pain as their primary focus, knowing that the medication used to treat the pain is likely to kill the patient.”
Mr Hood said it was “inconsistent” and “ironic” that people could argue against capital punishment but support euthanasia.
Ethics expert Associate Professor Wendy Rogers, from Flinders
University, said that euthanasia and end-of-life issues would always
provoke emotional reactions.
“On the one hand there is the injunction to not kill people . . . that
is a strong moral and legal prohibition,” she said.
“On the other hand there are a lot of very strong views about autonomy
. . . all the big decisions we have control over except the time of
our death.”
Parliament will debate the Bill later this year.
Footnote: As my own body is cracking up at 66, I can’t imagine that this will be a concern to me in my 80s’…I will be gone!