By producing a major series of podcasts on the issue of assisted dying, Andrew Denton has challenged politicians to end the conspiracy of silence around euthanasia in Australia.
There is very strong community support for laws allowing euthanasia. In May last year, Essential Research found that 72% of voters supported voluntary assisted dying. Support is even stronger among older Australians.
Federal politicians are out of step with this sentiment, with strong opposition, particularly from hard-right Christian MPs. Notoriously, the decision of the Northern Territory parliament to allow euthanasia was overturned nearly 20 years ago. The Howard government later banned discussing euthanasia or suicide online, and under the Rudd government we learnt euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke’s Peaceful Pill Handbook was the subject of internet censorship by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Nitschke has been a target of serial harassment, and was even detained by Customs in 2014 as he sought to leave Australia.
Many politicians believe that euthanasia should not only be illegal, but any debate about it should be shut down, and its advocates silenced and harassed. Whether you support euthanasia or not, this is not the way a healthy democracy should function.
Euthanasia, beyond most public policy issues, goes to the very core of who we are. It is a question we face as individuals, as family and friends who cherish their loved ones, and as citizens in a society that, despite ever longer lifespans, gives us little control over how we die. There are good arguments on both sides of the question. And it deserves real debate, not silence and intimidation.
Disclosure: the Denton podcasts have been produced in association with the Wheeler Centre. Eric Beecher, chairman of Private Media, which owns Crikey, is also chairman of the Wheeler Centre.
I’ve just completed a national survey of doctors and nurses in NZ about their attitudes toward Physician-assisted Dying (not “euthanasia” -words matter, here). Under correct protocols, including legal authority to decide with a competent patient, most clinicians support nearly all forms of assisting with a death. Maybe, like a lot of things in Australia, just let NZ take the lead with the legislation being drafted in their Parliament, and see if our pollies can figure out that it’s not that hard to treat your citizens ‘as if’ they were competent adults. It’s on its way, and it’ll give ACL and Lyle Shelton something else to worry about besides stopping people from getting married. Won’t that be fun to watch?
This debate is not only overtime, but by the very suppression of euthanasia as a subject for discussion, politicians dismiss the voice of the people and impose generational subjugation.
This country found the guts to address the rights of women and abortion. Aged persons have a similar right to determine an end to life, particularly so if they are no longer able to function or exist as an individual entity of worth, to themselves.
Once governments realise they could save a billion or two annually (more? less?) by not perpetuating lives & clogging hospitals perhaps this will be the most effective argument in getting politicians in sync with the public.
As with same sex marriage, the Oz public is more enlightened & progressive than our representatives.
I’d be happy to talk openly about euthanasia when we have best-practice palliative care offered nationally (there was none at all in Darwin twenty years ago), when we have bereavement counselling for families dealing with the end-of-life issues of a loved one, and when the high rate of depression among the elderly is addressed by the public health system. In the summer issue of the Monthly, Karen Hitchcock writes: “Over the 12 years that I have worked as a doctor in large public hospitals, I have cared for hundreds of dying patients. No one has ever died screaming or begging for me to kill them. Patients have told me they want to die. My response to this is “Tell me why.” It is rarely because of pain, but it is often because of despair, loneliness, grief, the feeling of worthlessness, meaninglessness or being a burden. I have never seen a dying patient whose physical suffering was untreatable.” Perhaps next time Crikey could sponsor an expert to reflect on the issue.
@RK what about a person with a full consent care plan that stipulates euthanasia in the event of dementia or alzheimers..??