In the Good Weekend of the Age dated March72, in her “Up Front” “Your time starts now”….Jenny Brockie, presenter of the SBS Insight Program advised readers that the hardest thing she’d ever done was “watch the way my mother died”……..no further details are provided.

That too was the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life!….I had a choice!  She’d been suffering some years with emphysema, spondylolysis, a bit of arthritis, and to top it all off, gout!   My mother enjoyed a beer or three and we’d thought she’d do her liver as well.   She eventually died of a stroke which took two weeks to eventuate.The two longest weeks in my life, and highs and the lows of expectations that things would revert to normal, following the latest crisis.   Others watch their mothers over months, weeks or years!  In fact the man in the (Prince Henry) hospital waiting room told me that his mother had the same conditions as mine and had remained in a vegetative state for two years after of the initial stroke.

I found the hours, the days, the two weeks almost intolerable.   Her blue eyes were opened but unseeing, her tongue lolled out of the side of her lips, her face was red, glistening with an almost unshed sweat….It was frightful!….She was already brain dead because she had been revived by the ambulance drivers at least twelve to fifteen minutes after her heart had stopped beating!   I was so very grateful to them at the time, but I learned that mother nature has a purpose for allowing us to die when she’s ready!  Everything else is a fake of what living a full life is intended to be.   Stella would never have wanted to live in the manner I was watching her die slowly anyhow…..eventually nature was kind and no heroic treatment was to save her body from further decay.

One of the reason why I held so much respect for Lesley Martin, the New Zealand woman who went to goal for assisting her mother, was because she put her mother’s needs above her own.   I didn’t do that, even while I seriously considered pulling mum’s life support machine away from the wall….I chose instead to consider my daughter’s need to pass her HSC that year to enable her to take up nursing.  I knew that her mother facing trial and manslaughter charges would not be conducive to a good enough mark to be accepted into the Royal Melbourne Hospital for training.  For years afterwards I felt like I had let my mother ‘down’ by not shortening the time, it took her to die.   I have no way of knowing if she was aware of my ideas as I contemplated the machinery, but I certainly know she would have approved!

Watching a loved one die badly is “one of the hardest things, many of us have done”, and it is well documented that the manner of a person’s death is much more memorable than most anything else that occurs within the prolonged dying process.      An assisted death, controls the distress for both the patient and their relatives for entirely different, but equally important reasons, compassion to relieve relentless pain and compassion that others don’t witness the distress of the dying process.

We don’t look like the TV pictures would have us believe…
Dying is not pretty ! “hair billowed out, talking or gasping out meaningful sentences about past memories, perhaps a little sleepy as we slip away”     We usually die with rats tails for hair, teeth sitting in a bowl, hallowed out cheeks, excruciatingly weary, sweaty,  thirsty!, soiling the bed, semi conscious, little small talk at all – and with no appetite or energy to care about food or people.    This is much more the reality of the average death following a chronic or terminal illness.  Unlike the TV dramas, we don’t come back in another episode  elsewhere the following week!  Dying is really hard work!

To live with the memory  that the hardest thing in your life as been to watch the WAY a mother dies should be the single most avoidable tragedy that children of the future can hope for, when asked the question what is “The hardest thing you’ve ever done!” .

The appropriate compassionate legislation would make the death of a parent, or child or just anyone we care about more bearable – while not a pleasant experience, at least one that helps us remember the good times before,  with more clarity,  than the death itself!!   How many of us have witnessed the death of a loved one and cried out “thank goodness, what a relief”……

It is human nature not to enjoy watching the pain of others, and while doctors may not want to aid an assisted death, making the necessary legislation to allow us to help ourselves with the appropriate medication would be a great leap forward to prevent such answers as Jenny Brockie and thousands like her….”Watch the way my mother died”!…….Closing her eyes peacefully from an overdose of barbiturates would not produce the same bad memories!

Forward: No prizes for guessing who I’d prefer.   It seems to me Lesley Martin is an extension of the Palliative Care method.  Her views express a desire to prolonging the dying process to its conclusion in much the same way.   That to me is not necessarily “dignity” whether in New Zealand or Australia!  I believe obviously, that a hastened death also has a place in legislative change,  in a number of choices currently being debated in Australia.

Lesley Martin says

Mrs Wallis was depressed and could still have decided not to take her own life, Ms Martin said. “In Dr Nitschke’s camp of thinking, there are no questions asked. If someone expresses the desire to end their life, he provides a method. And he also derives an income from that.”

The right-to-die movement was split between camps who wanted to pursue legislative reform and those who gave people information about euthanasia options, she said.

Dr Nitschke’s views would soon be redundant, Ms Martin said.

She was organising a conference in Wellington in October to discuss dignity havens. “They won’t be invited. Philip Nitschke’s made his name for being controversial and hijacking legitimate forums.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3519679/Gloves-off-in-pro-euthanasia-camps

Gloves off in pro-euthanasia camps

By TOM FITZSIMONS – The Dominion Post

Pro-euthanasia groups are trading barbs after an American woman was charged with helping a woman in New Zealand kill herself.

Susan Wilson, 48, who lives in North Carolina, has denied helping Audrey Wallis, 49, to take her own life in 2007.

Police have charged Wilson with assisting suicide, but she may never be tried in this country because New Zealand’s extradition deal with the United States does not include the charge.

Australian euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said Wilson had denied providing the lethal drug Nembutal to Mrs Wallis, or receiving $12,000 from her.

Wilson had provided information and “sat with her when she ended her life using helium”, Dr Nitschke said. She had been compensated $2000 for airfares and accommodation but denied being paid $12,000.

Dr Nitschke, dubbed “Doctor Death”, attacked right-to-die advocate Lesley Martin for bringing a complaint about Wilson to police.

“This is the first example of the police being employed by one faction of the right-to-die movement to pursue those with an alternative view.”

He also described Ms Martin’s idea of “dignity havens” – hospices that include assisted suicide options – as quaint.

But Ms Martin, head of Dignity New Zealand, said Wilson’s denial was implausible as she had talked openly about helping Mrs Wallis kill herself on a BBC film.

“I think it’s naive of anyone to think that someone would travel that distance and sit there and do nothing else. I think she’s probably quite a simple-thinking woman who just saw a quick way to make a quick buck.”

Mrs Wallis was depressed and could still have decided not to take her own life, Ms Martin said. “In Dr Nitschke’s camp of thinking, there are no questions asked. If someone expresses the desire to end their life, he provides a method. And he also derives an income from that.”

The right-to-die movement was split between camps who wanted to pursue legislative reform and those who gave people information about euthanasia options, she said.

Dr Nitschke’s views would soon be redundant, Ms Martin said.

She was organising a conference in Wellington in October to discuss dignity havens.

“They won’t be invited. Philip Nitschke’s made his name for being controversial and hijacking legitimate forums.”

In Wellington, Margaret Page, 60, has not eaten for 15 days after deciding to starve herself to death.

A spokeswoman for the St John of God home, where Mrs Page is a patient, said her condition was unchanged yesterday.

Footnote: I own two copies of Ms Martin’s book called “to die like a dog”.  I won’t pass them on to any one else, because I will no longer promote this woman’s work.  Once I thought she had an excellent grasp of what working towards the Right to Die platform actually meant.   Differing viewpoints but with the same fundamentally shared solid goal in mind.  What worked for one individual may not work for the other.   Many individuals in Victoria belong to both Exit International and their own State’s equivalent to DWDV. (Dying with Dignity Victoria).

Personally the hellium approach is not to my tastes but has worked well it seems for others.  It is about choice for the individual when the end stage of life becomes intolerable. Not promoting suicide at all, but just trying to empathise with methods people may adopt in the face of no legislation in place. Protecting individuals from what is a Russian roulette scenario  of being at the mercy of Right to Life proponents, either as an organisation, or as a health care worker.

Once Lesley Martin and Philip Nitschke were friends!  What happened?  Why the animosity displayed by Lesley consistently over these past years since her release from goal.   Lesley wrote the book and was responsible for her own incarceration, not Philip Nitschke.   Of course, he will use circumstances to promote public awareness of his views and that of Exit International which is made up of flesh and blood members who feel very strongly about options, in addition to legislation.  That’s just doing what is expected of him, in the same way DWDV promotes the legislative approach.    I too have a foot in both camps….I can’t think, that I will live to see the legislative approach come to fruition, so I need the additional insurance of ensuring a good death by keeping myself fully informed of the alternative options.

I’ve personally spoken to people who are prepared to pay $5,000 dollars for the necessary dose of Nembutal to aid an effective painless death.  Desperate people do desperate things.   There could be a fantastic black market for this drug, but the problem for the ‘pushers’ would be, their customer never return for seconds, unlike heroin.

I believe Lesley Martin’s view that Philip Nitschke’s motives are more about the money than the ultimate gift of relieving terminal pain, is an attempt to make herself look more acceptable to the ‘mums and dads’ in society and nothing to do with the reality of what does happen when people are assisted with suicide.

Philip Nitschke DOES NOT PROVIDE THE METHOD regardless of Lesley’s assertions!  instead he provides the information on what options are available.    With Lesley’s attitude, it seems that the decision making process is back in the hands of those who use their own ‘healthy disposition’ to make decisions which affect others who have no health left!!

Please set your tape machine for 12.50 am Wednesday Morning, on Tuesday night,(March 30)  SBS for the part two of Davor Dirlic’s documentary, Do Not Resuscitate.   It is a look into end life stages and how 3 people approach the prospect.    The documentary came about because of a concerted effort to introduce voluntary euthanasia into the Parliament,  and the wish to see it legalised by the Victorian State Government, for the sake of some 80% of Victorians, who want change to the Medical Treatment Act 1985.

Only the Greens Party have a Policy in place to address the issue which has been a battle for activists for some thirty five years.  Individual Labor and Liberals support the concept of a hastened death with physician assisted dying an option, but unfortunately the Right to Life people are relentless in tying to tell others how to live and how to die!    I don’t force my beliefs on them, but I do reserve the right to be extremely angry that the lawmakers allow bigots rights to endure over mine.   What makes their rights more right than mine, in LAW?
I’m hoping that financial constraints and a relentless onslaught of frail elderly population will force governments to acknowledge that some of us, don’t want life at ANY price foisted upon us, but rather a rational assessment about the quality of life one would prefer, over quantity,  prolonging the dying experience.   By choice, of course!   It makes sense in a win win situation to provide for voluntary euthanasia legislation – the chronic and terminally ill don’t suffer unncessarily to a bitter conclusion unless they choose to retain life at any cost – and the government does not have to fund the inevitable for years and years of nothingness, lying in bed or propped up in front of a TV, not seeing, not hearing, not comprehending, not knowing, in a vegetative state.

Start lobbying your State and Federal policitians now for your own “old age”….it is almost too late for many of us who can’t take the risk  that we’ll lose the opportunity for choice!   That we’ll join that vegetative state sooner than we could have imagined….modern medical technology being what it is….

Do you notice how medical stories are portrayed on television reality shows?  “How the patient has suffered a severe head injury but is lucky to be alive” that’s relative, of course, about who is meant to be the “lucky” ones here, the patient themselves whose capacity to be self sufficient is zero?, the relatives who nurse them for years worried they’ll outlive their carers? , or the Health Care Workers who have a job for life?

Apart from the drain on the public health purse, there is also the additional burden of sustaining the buildings and staffing costs, which will be overwhelmed as people have better choices for employment in the future.   Handling old people is labour intensive – it would pay the government handsomely to respect our wishes for choice and dignity in dying!!   And put a lot of people’s minds at rest at the same time…..

Letter in the Age dated March 27, reads:

As a doctor, I sympathise with Belinda Ramsay’s distress (Comment 25/3).  However, she is incorrect to say that in her mother’s situation an episode of “influenza” must be treated.

Perhaps a meeting with her mother’s GP would help ensure her mother is treated appropriately, and that measures her family and perhaps doctor feel are unnecessary are not used.

Most doctors might not be willing to assist in euthanasia, even if it was legal, but most doctors also do not feel comfortable unnecessarily prolonging life.

Sarah Abrahamson, Ringwood

Footnote: The doctor’s suggestion has merit.  What she is saying is to refuse any treatment that will sustain life.   I remembered too late when I received a pneumonia vaccine together with my husband.  I got carried away with the enthusiasm of the doctor in the presence of my husband who has every reason to enjoy a sustained life.   I realised too late that I ensured that my life would not be ended (well easily, anyhow!) by a disease that was once known as the friend of the elderly!

Of greater interest to me personally was Dr Abrahamson’s remarks that “Most doctors might not be willing to assist in euthanasia, even if it was legal”….      where then does that leave the suffering patient who will by that stage be in no condition to stand up and change either doctor or hospital?.  If it is a legal requirement that ensures a patient does not have the benefit of a hastened death because of the existing legislation, why can’t any legislation change towards a Physician Assisted Dying law cover the benefit of the patient to ensure compliance to the law, first and foremost for the patient’s comfort !

What possible hope has the individual to ensure the private attitude of a health care worker BEFORE it becomes a problem at death’s door!….

It seems to me that Doctors such as Dr Sarah Abrahamson may treat the needs of the patients based on their personal moral views, without the patient themselves being in a position to exercise their rights under law, should the legislation change anytime soon!

How can those in need receive the protection under law, in any easing of restrictions,  that should be their right, when existing laws are enforced with monotonous regularity!?

How can we ensure we get the ‘right’ doctor, in the ‘right’ health care facility?

I heard figures mentioned yesterday on television the aged care facilities are estimated to have to accommodate up to an additional 90,000 aged and dementia patients in the next ten years – while at the same time – health care professionals shield away from geriatrics as a preferred professional career move.

I’m great on forward planning, always have been!    What has the relevant government got in place to cover the future of an aged population in an environment where “no one” it seems “wants to end up in a nursing home!”….Our nursing homes are not like the ones we see in English ‘whodoneit’ movie, with people walking around majestic gardens and civilised dining rooms….you’re more likely to be told off for going to the dining room in your house coat….if you remain undrugged and upwardly mobile to begin with!

I remembered with my aged aunt how gullible I was when being told that my aunt had suddenly decided to take to her bed and remain basically uncommunicative until her death two years later.  I actually believed the staff when they reassured me that she had not been overdosed beyond any quality of meaningful life.   That it was the ageing process kicking in!  Rubbish!      She was blind, she had broken her hip, but she remained a delightful old soul until she was moved from one ‘nursing home’, being sold off,  to another!  She’d sing to me in her beautiful voice while shelling the peas for me when I was able to bring her home each weekend for perhaps three years before that final ‘resting place’, her bed!  She only choose that place because it was down the road from her home of twenty years!  Not a good enough reason to end up in a dump of a ‘nursing home’.

No wonder some of us panic at the thought of losing control over our end of life stage!

I was asked yesterday to define what steps I took to get myself well again in 1999 on being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.   It was a deep question to ask someone walking through a major shopping centre like Chadstone.  I had to think, because it isn’t so easy to explain in words….

I replied eventually by saying:    I likened the cancer itself to be a piece of fabric…very strong material like canvas or sailcloth, not easily penetrated (which cancer isn’t either).    I didn’t try to force my way though its impenetrable weave.  I nibbled at the corners…..I frayed the material (the cancer) until I could weaken the weave…..I started at outside and worked my way in very very slowly…….I didn’t want or need to think about the next year, or next month, or next week….at one stage it was clock watching for that five minute time lapse that would enable me to have my next dose of medication to relieve my pain and distress……. I found myself thinking in terms of half hours, hours and half days.  I broke down the strength of the fabric into manageable size for me to cope with on a daily basis….just one day at a time, for a very long time!

People use the word ‘courageous’ but it has nothing to do with courage and everything to with the ‘bloody mindedness’ to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds.  Courage implies the patient with cancer, has a choice. To be brave or a coward!   No one is ever a coward in the face of dealing with cancer.   People who stay alive and survive the cure are no braver than the person who decides that there is little point to stuffing up their quality of life by denying themselves further treatment.   Treatment which may prolong life but at a cost more dear, than they’re prepared to pay.

There is no choice!  You have an illness which must be addressed.  With the best intentions in the world, you may still die of the illness!  Attitude or wanting to live, is not a sufficient motivation to prevent your death, but for some of us, we’ll give treatment a go!

Much of your recovery relies on the ability of your health care workers.

What I do believe absolutely is that,  only the patient can do for themselves is to work and develop their attitude with how best to deal with the illness…..If you try a collection of ‘cures” you’ll probably make a number of people quite rich at your expense, and they’ll take your money and run.   They have no INVESTMENT in your wellbeing, here today and gone tomorrow.

“Positive” attitudes don’t work in the case of an illness, which has little respect for any body…. Learning to accept the reality of an imminent death is very very hard and stressful, particularly if you’re relatively young with family, grandchildren and a career…”You’re Needed!” your mind screams silently, “How will they get on without me”?  They will and they do!!  but the reality is that the world will still continue its path, with or without your presence.   I sat and cried for days with my trusty dog, Sandy, gazes forlornly at my stricken face and she never once told me to “get a grip on yourself Mary” “Think positive, its all in the mind”….”Take another pill”…
It is extremely hard to stay ‘rested’ when all the evidence points to the fact that you are in fact dying slowly over a period of six months or a year.   The fact I am still here 11 years later was not something that anyone assumed would be the outcome for me….At one point I was being “treated” to secure me another couple of years of life.

I marveled that I am still alive….but i suppose for the cancer to take hold of me, I have to sit still long enough for it to catch me again….. I live a very full life and interest myself in many social issues.

That ‘piece of fabric‘ has been well and truly shredded, but I don’t for one minute believe there won’t be another bolt of cloth somewhere in storage,  that will turn up eventually.  It is the nature of cancer to return elsewhere in the body and I found myself philosophical about the melanoma diagnosed last year…but that was only ‘cotton’ and easy to demolish its possibilities.

The manner of my death occupies my mind, much more than any returning cancer which I believe is inevitable.

As my nephew said at my initial diagnosis  “when the cancer cells arrived in Aunty May’s guts, they looked around and said “Christ what have we taken on here?  We’re out of here and fast!).   Helpful to have that sort of reputation on occasions eh?

Regarding the Do Not Resuscitate Documentary and my self rant in review, Judy sent this email:

“Stop beating urself up u r doing as much as humanly possible a staggering effort rub ur medal 4 reassurance.  Many things I had 2 say did not make the cut.  2 me the only silly thing u said was about a woman of 60 doing this what would have been the right age?

fond regards

j”

Thanks Judy, I needed a kick up the posterior to bring me down to earth.  It is done!  I do wish I had the personality that allowed me to let matters of great importance to me,  wash over my head more easily!

Yesterday a friend who rarely rings about anything rang to say, “He was so very proud to know that he could call me a friend” having watched the documentary Part 1,  at 1 am being unable to sleep.  We’d travelled down from Canberra together after attending the Exit Conference a couple of years ago (Rights of the Terminally Ill Legislation overturn memorial)…. I had watched as Dr Nitschke’s books (The Peaceful Pill) were burned by Philip and Fiona -  and I cried then as I felt we were being subjected to Nazi Germany type censorship.  A burning book is symbolic of so much meaning!   The companionship on the long drive home was just what I needed.

Another friend assured me, that where I’ve walked others will follow and keep up the pressure for change in the years to come.      “I just have to be patient”!!!    Yeah right!  like patience is my second name…….

Sleep in this morning, its 4.45 am.   I was looking for the poll result of the Herald Sun taken March 23, 2010 but as I usually do, got distracted and found this article instead.   The Adelaide Advertiser also did a poll which came out at about 55/45%, so still had the majority vote to no avail.   The Melbourne poll was reading 81% in favour, and fell to 79% later that day.   My friend who shares my despair of effective legislative change within our life time are just resigned to the fact that this is the way it is!!    Thank goodness for the Greens, who just keep, keeping on about the really important social issues.

Of course, the Bill failed, yet again!!

It doesn’t matter which State of Australia we live in, we are still restricted to living our lives and ending our lives according to the views of others.   If we don’t own our bodies to make choices about it, for ourselves – then who does own us?   The State?   The Government?   Who owns Us?!!!

Hundreds die in pain as `zealots’ block change

#  TORY SHEPHERD
# From: The Advertiser
# October 28, 2009 12:01AM

HUNDREDS of South Australians are dying needlessly painful and agonising deaths as euthanasia is not legal, the architect of the world’s first voluntary euthanasia legislation says.

Former Northern Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron is in Adelaide and two Bills for legalising euthanasia are before Parliament – introduced by Greens MLC Mark Parnell and Independent MP Bob Such. They hope they will be debated this week.

Mr Perron, however, says “fanatical” religious “zealots” are standing in the way of what should be a human right. “We need our parliaments to listen to what people are saying.

There are Australians taking their own lives now because they are in a desperate situation and can’t get the help they need,” he said. “Australians 75 and older suicide at the rate of three a week. These people die violently. Most hang themselves.”

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage

* ‘Hundreds hoarding death drugs’ Adelaide Now, 18 Feb 2010
* New slant on right-to-die debate The Australian, 5 Feb 2010
* Moral minority must not rule Adelaide Now, 21 Nov 2009
* Readers’ Comments: Voluntary euthanasia bill defeated Adelaide Now,
* Embroiled in a lethal argument The Australian, 6 Nov 2009

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

In 1996, the NT was the first to legalise voluntary euthanasia. Only about four people took advantage before the law was overturned.

SHOULD EUTHANASIA BE LEGAL? Have your say in the comment box below.

Mr Perron said about 2 per cent of all dying people “suffer terribly”, with modern medicine unable to relieve their suffering. “We’ve never lived so long or died so slowly,” he said, adding that, while plenty of doctors illegally helped people die, there was a lack of equity in access to that.

Mr Perron compared euthanasia with abortion before it was legalised, saying rich and famous people had access to services through private and sympathetic doctors. Poorer people were forced to suffer, take matters into their own hands, or be subjected to “backyard” operators.

Polls have shown about eight in 10 Australians support the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

Prominent advocate, adventurer and arts entrepreneur Kym Bonython, almost 90, says he has witnessed too many friends “lingering on and on and on where all they want to do is go to sleep”, and wants the State Government to change the situation.

“I don’t think it should be open slather,” he said. “But I’m opposed to this business of keeping them alive despite terrible pain and desperation, when they could just be given an injection and go off to sleep.”

Starving woman rejects help
By TOM FITZSIMONS and KATE NEWTON – The Dominion Post

A disabled woman starving herself in a care home has refused attempts by health authorities to make her more comfortable.

Margaret Page, 60, wants to die and has gone 11 days without eating. Her speech and movement have been severely limited since suffering a brain haemorrhage in 1991.

Her stance has sparked ethical and legal debate, with support coming from the Medical Association and the lawyer for a disabled Australian man whose bid to end his life last year drew global attention.

Mrs Page’s family also supports her decision. But her husband, Barry Page, who has a new partner, wants her to be forced to eat.

Legal experts say the law is clearly on her side because she has been found to be lucid. But a suicide expert has cautioned that assessing suicidal patients is difficult.

Capital & Coast District Health Board staff visited Mrs Page at Wellington’s St John of Godhome about midday yesterday after The Dominion Post revealed her hunger strike.

They offered her a pressure-release mattress to make her more comfortable but she declined it, St John’s spokeswoman Fiona Athersmith said. “Margaret continued to indicate that the cushion is not the issue causing her decision.”

If Mrs Page became unconscious, she would be moved to Mary Potter Hospice, Ms Athersmith said.

A Capital & Coast spokeswoman said the DHB relied on care facilities for guidance about when to assess individual patients’ needs.

Since she stopped eating, Mrs Page has been assessed three times by psychiatrists, who have found her mentally competent. Her care has since been referred to her GP.

Health law expert Jonathan Coates, of Wellington firm Buddle Findlay, said the Bill of Rights Act and common law were clear about a competent patient’s right to refuse treatment, including food and water.

“Even if their family is saying they don’t like it, even if doctors and health professionals are saying they don’t like it … they still have that right.”

Lawyer John Hammond represented Perth man Christian Rossiter last year at Western Australia’s Supreme Court, winning a decision that backed his hunger strike.

Mr Rossiter, a quadriplegic, died in September amid wide publicity.

Mr Hammond said Mrs Page “can take a great deal of confidence from Christian Rossiter’s case”. Mr Rossiter had described his life as a “living hell”. He “couldn’t wipe tears from his eyes, and had to have his throat cleared every morning”, Mr Hammond said.

Visiting British suicide expert Professor Nav Kapur said New Zealand’s mental health laws were excellent for patient autonomy, but suicide complicated cases.

“There are some people that would argue that if suicidal ideas are involved, then actually there may be grounds to treat people. In the context of someone who might be starving themselves to death, feeding could be regarded as one form of treatment.

“But it’s very tricky and it becomes even trickier when it’s a person in a very disabled chronic physical condition.”

Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said starvation cases came up occasionally when people had no choice left.

“It’s a grim and difficult death … It’s a bit of a desperate strategy.”

HOW LONG CAN YOU SURVIVE?

The length of time humans can survive without food depends on how much fat a person has and their state of health from the outset.

An otherwise healthy person can survive for up to six weeks without food, though this drops to about 10 days if they are also not drinking water.

When the body is deprived of food it starts to use its own tissues to produce energy.

It starts on fat stores immediately, but as fat is used it begins to use protein from skeletal muscles and vital organs.

The body will slow down while trying to conserve protein.

It will start to break down the protein in vital organs and the heart.

Respiratory organs and liver will start to fail.

Pneumonia is a high risk in the latter stages of starvation because the respiratory muscles become weak and the lungs don’t function properly.

Source: Auckland District Health Board

Footnote: Surely there are easier ways for this lady to be relieved of her long term suffering.  Can she be kept sedated as she starves similarly  as a friend of mine did in a Melbourne hospital many years ago.   With incurable cancer, she was rarely aware of anything over that two weeks!

It is 4 am in the morning!

I started this piece yesterday, but the atmosphere was not conducive to my pensive reflections of the moment and I abandoned the attempt altogether.   TV blaring, dogs barking, people moving around -  just general activity was not setting the mood!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing!    Mary Walsh and a wasted opportunity to do better…..I was so pleased that Steve Guest as a trained Journalist, but dying badly and Judy Bayliss, a retired teacher, but living badly, shared their stories better.

Yesterday I watched part 1 of the video, I’d had ‘my other half’ tape at 1 am SBS Wednesday morning - too ‘morning’ to be of any great use as a message board…However nothing was going to change minds so I let it go and resigned myself to yet another lost opportunity for the general public to gain additional knowledge about this contentious subject known as voluntary euthanasia.

I was so in the moment!

Yet again I was so aware of my shortcomings in the film.   Of the three participants I was the least articulate and the most emotional – I was the least sick,  Nerve damage doesn’t film well!  in fact looked fat and well against the other two, Steve Guest, who I never met but respected enormously his contribution to the VE forum,  and Judy Bayliss, who I see on an irregular basis.   Judy, because with my own lack of stability means I can’t ‘help’ her myself!    The three participants did not meet each other during filming.

I knew the Director (Davor Dirlic),  was looking for the obvious signs of severe illness that would justify my existence in the film, but I was so focused on the activism for political change – something I did very much alone!   I wasn’t acting walking through the streets of Melbourne! or standing for months on the steps of parliament house.      I felt a fool, looked a fool – but knew that a picture tells a thousand words!  People were stunned by the visual pictures of my abdomen, but I had actually lived through it to tell the story!  I didn’t want that to be my future again.      I remembered over the year plus of filming I had two major post out of letters to every State politician which cost me a couple of hundred dollars in printing and posting – but that never made the cut either.

The hard slog wasn’t worth noting and yet it was the most important aspect of my purpose for participating in the documentary to start with.    I have no way of knowing whether as an individual I made one politician change his mind as a result of the 600 or 700 hundred letters I’ve written, not to mention to emails to Federal Politicians over the years.

The tattoo has been a very successful method of communicating the VE message and dozens of people have asked me about it from all walks of life.   But again, selfishly, that tattoo is a real living message that I mean to have a dramatic impact on any health care worker that finds me unconscious.  Not a gimmick -  but a tool of communication that I firmly believe will see my wishes respected in a moral dilemma by those charged with my wellbeing.

I’ve slowed down somewhat, because it is very much a one way communication avenue, but I still took the opportunity to ask at a Premier’s Community Forum last year, why the Physician Assisted Dying Bill was not supported in State Parliament when 80% of the Victorian population want change???  I took the opportunity to provide a copy of my Submission to the Human Rights Forum to both the Premier and the Minister.     ( A very clever manipulation of the political process ensured that any amendments were gagged effectively closing off any meaningful debate.)     I was seated at a table with the Minister for Health along with Health Care Workers and only learned by default that it was an invitation only function, but I’d slipped in under the radar. I keep trying!  A white haired senior, doesn’t really have a voice that matters to anyone in the power games, but the table guests were interested in my strong views to the medical profession about end of life choices.  It is hard to argue I suppose with a participant (ovarian cancer), when others listening are only observers.   Being in the moment yourself can provide an entirely different POV.

I wondered why I worked so hard at attempting to change attitudes!  Why didn’t I just ’shut up’ and do my own thing.   I remembered being described as ‘strident‘ and how hurt I was with that ‘tag’ but again, looking back over the years, perhaps I’ve been very strident to those on the receiving end of my empathic point of view!   To me it is such a simple thing and I can’t genuinely understand why it is so hard for people to allow others to be in absolute control of their own life!!   Their own life!, not anyone elses, just theirs!!!

I remembered the emotions churned up by discussing my issues ‘with the family’.   I still feel it was a futile exercise, although my BIL (brother in law) having watched a recent Four Corners documentary on channel 2, really gained a grasp at 78 of the message I had worked for over ten years.

My sister (love her dearly)  believes in really different things to me, like a before and after life – the purpose for life cannot be as simple as I assume it to be!  Here for a good time, not a long time! and that this life “is IT”…to be lived, loved and enjoyed in the moment.

A professional reviewer elsewhere remarked that “Mary seemed intent on killing herself” and I could have screamed with the frustration of not being understood – but that’s my fault – because I don’t make myself clear enough! perhaps the editing had something to do with.   I remember one film session where I stood in the loungeroom and spoke coherently about my political activism and probably with TOO MUCH great passion, but that never made the cut!    The filmmaker wanted me “softer”, more an appealing nature selling an idea to the viewing public – but I wasn’t an actress – I was me!!

I have no sense of strangeness that the person on the screen is me!   I recognise me at every level – I wanted to ring Judy and ask her how she felt viewing it again, but I knew I would choke on my words.  I’ll do it when I am less emotional.

I was so very touched by the humanity shown by Dr Rodney Syme when he spent valuable time with Steve Guest.   No fanfare with Dr Syme, what you see, is what you get.   He was the ideal person to be there for Steve and his family.   The fact that Steve was the youngest of three strapping young men, just compounds the message that voluntary euthanasia can affect all walks of life.   No one is immune from bad health.     Of course, I cried yesterday again at the futility of the suffering as Steve attempted to move through his home (and Judy too elsewhere within the documentary!) .  The simple loss of taste I could relate to, and the yearning for normality.      I know exactly what Steve meant when he remarked that ‘once he had the security of knowledge in a practical sense’ he could concentrate of living his days out, knowing they were numbered, but at peace with himself because of that.    He was in control of his life.

Next Wednesday morning gives viewer Part Two.

The details of two emails, I’ve received, and responded to,  shared with readers here:

Funny you should mention religion and politicians, my friend, but it is the nature of people we have to deal with in every day life, and many people we need in our lives hold strong religious beliefs.   Sometimes it is their beliefs that bring them into the area of “do-gooders” in politics and health care workers.

We can’t ignore them and not be disadvantaged – the idea is to go into their space and their assurances that their view is the RIGHT one and seek to change that for possible choices,  at least for the individual they’re dealing with while undertaking their public duties.

I have registered for the Right to Die Conference one day public members, but could not bring myself to attend the Interfaith one….I am intimidated without any justification, that those people will first and foremost put the perceived religious interpretation about the  sanctity of life, if only because their views are made in public as representatives of their organisations.

I’ve stopped Jews and Indians in the street and asked the questions!  Life must be sustained regardless.

Religion is its own politics and those ‘leaders’ have the same agendas, to protect their patch and retain members at whatever the cost.    They just dress differently!

The Forum  sounds like a great place to mingle and put forward the idea of just the need for a straightforward method of dealing with the prolonged dying process, but who among us, will put up the challenge.

Less emotional people than me are required to represent choice and dignity in dying as the preferred option to “offering your suffering up to the Lord who died on the Cross for your sins” or words to that effect!

Mary

www.yourchoiceindying.com

From: DWDV [mailto:dwdv@dwdv.org.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 24 March 2010 10:13 AM
To:
Subject: Two forthcoming events may be of interest to you:

Dear DWDV Member,

Two forthcoming events may be of interest to you.

The first is the World Federation of Right to Die Societies Conference which DWDV is hosting in Melbourne in early October, 2010.

Details about this important conference and ticket sales for the public day on 9th October are now live on the DWDV web site, from the Home page (www.dwdv.org.au/Home.html).

The second is a conference on Death and Dying, also in Melbourne, the week after Easter.

The full conference program is detailed below, at the end of this message.

Both conferences will be opportunities for DWDV members to participate in the community conversation about end-of-life issues.

With regards

Judith Hoy

DWDV Member Communications

Death and Dying: An Interfaith Symposium

Wednesday to Friday, 7-9 April 2010

Hosted by the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission

Sponsored by the Victorian Multicultural Commission and Australian Catholic University

Symposium aims:

The program will provide participants with knowledge and insight into how each religious tradition views the human person, understands the afterlife and finds hope rather than despair in the face of death. The meaning of the rites of passage as practiced by the different faith traditions will be presented. Legal, ethical, and medical aspects of preparing for death will be explored from the different faith perspectives ¸with input from those in involved directly with the dying and their families.

Recommended for:

* Pastoral care workers

* Funeral directors
*  Palliative care professionals and volunteers
*  Clergy and members of the different faith  communities
*  Medical and allied care professionals
*  Others interested in interfaith approaches to the human person
*  Civic and political leaders
*  Nurses, doctors, ethicians, teachers, and theologians

Dates: 9am to 5pm for three days: Wednesday to Friday, 7- 9 April, 2009.

Venue: Mercy Lecture Theatre, Australian Catholic University (St Patrick Campus), 115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy

Morning and Afternoon tea provided; lunches BYO or nearby cafes.

Registration:

Please register online by going to http://www.trybooking.com/DXQ and clicking “next” at the bottom of the page to commence registration.

Nb. When using the online booking system, please note that you will need to register separately for each single-day session. Please click the“continue shopping: this event” at the bottom of the checkout page and continue registration until you have completed all the days for which you wish to register. Tickets are listed as “free” because we are not using Trybooking to collect payments.

Payment: The cost of the Symposium is $25 per day or $60 for the whole three days.
Please pay by cheque or cash on arrival at the event, OR
Prior to the event by cheque made out to “Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission” and mailed to
Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission
PO Box 146, East Melbourne VIC 8002

More information: email the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission ecum@cam.org.au This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Proposed Program

Wednesday 7 April: Death and Dying: Theology and Anthropology

8.30am                   Registration

9am-10.30am         Session One: Welcome and Opening

Welcome:

Very Rev. Fr Denis Stanley, Episcopal Vicar for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and Chair of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission
Professor Gabrielle McMullen, Vice-Pro-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (St Patrick Campus)

Opening: By representative of the Victorian Multicultural Commission

Keynote speaker: The Most Rev. Christopher Prowse, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sale
Respondent: Mr Julian Gardner, Public Advocate for Victoria from 2000-07

10.30am-11am:       Morning Tea

11am-12.30am:       Session Two: The cycle of life, death and afterlife in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Christian Speaker: Dr Merrill Kitchen, Principal Churches of Christ Theological College 2000-2010
Jewish Speaker: Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn, Chief Minister of the St Kilda Shule
Muslim Speaker: Professor Abdullah Saeed, Director of Asia Institute, University of Melbourne

12.30-1.30pm:       Lunch (BYO or nearby cafes)

1.30pm-3pm:         Session Three: The cycle of life, death and afterlife in Indigenous religions, Hinduism, Buddhism

Indigenous Speaker: Mr Djon Mundine (to be confirmed)
Hindu Speaker: Dr Navaratnam Shanmuganathan
Buddhist Speaker: Venerable Thich Phuoc Tan, Abbot of Quang Minh Temple in Braybrook

3pm – 3.30pm:       Afternoon Tea

3.30pm-5pm:          Session Four: Breakout for discussion and further exploration with speakers

Thursday 8 April: Death and Dying: Rites of Passage

9am-10.30am:         Session One: Political Issues surrounding Death and Dying facing Religious Communities

Keynote Speaker: Mrs Inga Peulich MLC, State Liberal Member for the South Eastern Metropolitan region

10.30am-11am:       Morning Tea

11am-12.30pm:      Session two: The Role of the Funeral (Jewish, Secular and Muslim funeral services)

Jewish Speaker: Mr Ephraim Finch, Executive Director of the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha
Secular Speaker: Ms Trish Goullet, Director of White Lady Funerals
Muslim Speaker: Sheikh Riad Galil, Imam of the West Heidelberg Mosque

12.30pm-1.30pm:   Lunch (BYO or nearby cafes)

1.30pm-3pm:          Session three: Rites of passage for the dying  (Christian, Hindu and Indigenous)

Christian Speaker: Dr Margaret Smith sgs (to be confirmed)
Hindu Speaker: Dr Jayant Bapat (to be confirmed)
Indigenous Speaker: Ms Vicki Clarke, Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Melbourne

3pm-3.30pm:          Afternoon Tea

3.30pm-5pm:          Session Four: Break out session:

Choice between two sessions: “Plan your own funeral” and “Sharing Experiences of funerals”

Friday 9 April: Death and Dying: How we die

9am-10.15am:         Session One: The Value of Life and the Value of Death: A Christian/Buddhist/Rationalist Dialogue

Christian Speaker: Rev. Dr John Dupuche, Chair of the Catholic Interfaith Committee
Buddhist Speaker: Ms Di Cousens, Melbourne Sakya Centre
Rationalist Speaker: Ms Lyn Allison, Democrat Senator for Victoria 1996-2008, Committee member of Rationalist Society of Victoria

10.15am-10.35am: Morning Tea

10.35am-12noon:   Second session: The Role of Faith or Non-faith in Palliative Care

First Speaker: (to be confirmed)
Sikh Speaker: (to be confirmed)
Buddhist Speaker: Venerable Beom Hyon, Palliative Care at Northern Hospital

12noon-12.30pm:   Joint Reflection Session    (time available for those wishing to attend Noon Prayer)

12.30-1.30pm:        Lunch (BYO or nearby cafes)

1.30pm-3pm:          Third Session: Experiences of Death: stories from those who have faced the experience of dying

Keynote Speaker: Dr Bruce Rumbold, School of Public Health, Latrobe University
Respondent: Ms Deborah Masel Miller, author, editor and teacher with a special interest in the Jewish mystical tradition.

3pm-3.30pm:         Afternoon Tea

3.30pm-5pm:         Fourth Session: Keynote Speaker: Future Challenges Facing the Life and Dying Debate

Keynote Speaker: Mr Mehmet Ozalp, Chief Executive Officer, Affinity Intercultural Society

David Schütz

Executive Officer

Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission

Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

383 Albert Street / PO Box 146 East Melbourne 3002

Ph. 03 9926 5708

Mobile 0400 978 938

Fax. 03 9926 5617

Web: http://eic.cam.org.au

Check the latest Ecumenical and Interfaith News at: http://www.einews.blogspot.com

You can subscribe to mailing list for news and updates at http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/eic/eic-publications.htm#emailnews

You are also invited to read our Ecumenical and Interfaith Bulletin at http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/eic/eic-bulletin.htm

The overwhelming majority of Australians believe in the right of the terminally
ill to seek and obtain medical assistance to end their life with dignity.

Dying With Dignity Victoria, Inc.    Reg. No: A0006974B    ABN: 80 591 186 892
3/9 b Salisbury Avenue, Blackburn, Victoria 3130
Web: www.dwdv.org.au Email: dwdv@dwdv.org.au
Phone: (03) 9877 7677    Fax: (03) 9877 5077