Euthanasia

Some people effectively work as plants; double agents within a lobby group, party or organisation who undermine the very thing they purport to be working for. It’s anti-astroturfing. Chameleon white-anting.

Dr Philip Nitzsche is, I suspect, one of these.

The ghoulish right-to-die campaigner has won Therapeutic Goods Administration approval to import Nembutal, a drug used for voluntary euthanasia, for suicide, and for executions – including in the recent case of Troy Davis.

Continue reading "Euthanasia: When Dr Death comes knocking" »

Christians do support legal assisted dying.

This may come as a surprise to most readers, but it is true.  What’s more, 74 per cent of people who claim to have a religion strongly support the right of doctors to provide a lethal dose, according to a 2007 Newspoll. Newspoll - a reputable public opinion polling company, as distinct from newspaper polls that can give skewed results. Exclude religion and we find a massive 91 per cent are in favour of medically assisted dying.

Included in this support are four out of five Anglicans and three out of four Catholics.

Continue reading "The Christian lobby versus Christian compassion" »

With the battle over legalised euthanasia touch and go in South Australia and Tasmania, the president of the Australian Nursing Federation, Coral Levett, has taken the extraordinary step of personally endorsing it.

Not that she has done much thinking for herself. Writing in last month’s Australian Nursing Journal, Ms Levett recycled a Powerpoint presentation given last year by the vice-president of NSW Dying With Dignity, Sara Edelman. Most of the paragraphs in her editorial reproduced the slides almost word for word. (To be fair, she does acknowledge Edelman’s “assistance”.)

In one of the few original bits, Ms Levett says, “I urge all nurses and midwives to actively participate in the VE [voluntary euthanasia] debate”. But after reading her screed, there is only possible side nurses could take: Unconditional support.

Continue reading "Nurses not neutral on lethal needle" »

There’s nothing like a good euthanasia debate to make you wary of doctors.

Sure, they come across all innocent with their gentle bedside manners, illegible handwriting and attempts to cure what ails us. If euthanasia opponents are to be believed, though, they’re actually dastardly devils with a desire for death.

Give ’em an inch when it comes to helping us die and they’ll take a mile – not to mention solicitations from family members who want to knock us off and take our riches, too.

Continue reading "Politics has no place in how we choose to die" »

Dr Phillip Nitschke’s pre-emptive move to set up a euthanasia clinic in Adelaide shows he has missed the purpose of the legislation before the Parliament.

The Criminal Law Consolidation (Medical Defences – End of Life Arrangements) Bill 2011 is purely aimed at giving a family doctor who has a long history with their patient the ability to use this legislation as a defence against a criminal charge should the medication given to their patient at the request of the patient result in the patient’s death.

The legislation does not legalise voluntary euthanasia.  The legislation does not legalise assisted suicide.

Continue reading "Euthanasia clinic: A publicity stunt that muddies debate" »

Exit International director, euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke has begun scouting locations for Australia’s first ‘euthanasia clinic’. His Adelaide visit comes as the South Australian Parliament prepared to debate new laws decriminalising assisted suicie. The Punch asked Dr Nitschke about his euthanasia clinic plans.

Q) What would a euthanasia clinic offer?

A) A euthanasia clinic offers the provision of coordinated services for those wishing a peaceful death. Not only providing the necessary lethal barbiturates, but also required counseling for the patient and their family, and the chance to ensure that palliative options have been properly explored and any underlying psychiatric issues uncovered.

Continue reading "Q&A: Plans for Australia’s first euthanasia clinic" »

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been confronted by concerned members of the Labor Right over legislation that would restrict the ability of the Commonwealth to overturn territory laws.

Their fear is that it would allow the territories to introduce their own laws on same-sex marriage and euthanasia, and the Prime Minister has been forced to delay her support for the bill.  Wayne Swan this morning has said the concerns are “legitimate.”  It’s a statement of the obvious that Julia Gillard is squeezed from the left by her coalition with the Greens, and from the right by the Labor party’s right wing concerned it will lose touch with increasingly angry base.

Perhaps what is less clear is what the territories’ legislation will actually allow.  Legally it doesn’t actually allow gay marriage or euthanasia, but there is a divergence between legal and political realities which would open up the door to their legalisation.

Continue reading "Gillard’s gay marriage and euthanasia minefield" »

Jim Carrey. Ricky Gervais. Adam Sandler. Steve Martin. All well-known funny men. Well, move over, guys. Philip Nitschke, the world’s best-known euthanasia activist, is considering a career change.

Life must have been pretty dreary for Nitschke lately. He has spent the last fortnight or so touring the British Isles in the dead of winter, touting his message of suicide on demand. It must be a bit demoralising to give a passionate lecture to a sea – a pond actually – of blue rinsed and bald heads in chilly local halls week after week.

But things are looking up. Dr Nitschke is contemplating a career as a stand-up comedian. No, this is not, repeat, not a joke. He told the newspaper Wales on Sunday, “There is a proposal to do some sort of stage stand-up comedy. It will be comedy associated with the issues of death and dying directed more at entertainment, that’s what we are looking at.”

Continue reading "Dr Death makes suicide a laughing matter" »

Today the parliament of South Australia is due to debate a bill to legalise medically assisted suicide in that state.

Should the bill pass, Australia’s “festival state” will assume the dubious and rather un-festive honour of being the first to make doctor assisted suicide available to its residents.

Unlike the Northern Territory’s 1996 legislation, the federal government would be unable to overturn the South Australian Bill should it pass into law.

Continue reading "South Australia risks turning doctors into agents of death" »

As Australia readies itself for a fresh debate about the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia, Dr Philip Nitschke is busy spreading his morbid gospel throughout Canada, where dozens of oldies are dying to attend his right-to-die seminars.

Most of them are not literally dying, no more so than the rest of us are in that daily incremental way. They’re a bit closer to their use-by-date, but they are generally hale and hearty. They have just decided that, when their time is almost at hand, they would like to go in a manner of their choosing and with dignity.

It’s a valid and widely-held human want. One pretty strong word of caution for these Canadian folks is that if it’s dignity they want, they should see another doctor.

Continue reading "Nutty Nitschke should be sidelined in death debate" »

Why do the Greens hate people?

At every turn they want to reduce the quality of life for human beings or in the worst case authorise a doctor to help kill some via euthanasia.

How can any political party charged by the constitution with the responsibility of governing for the peace, order and good government of the Australian people be taken seriously when the people always come second. And be under no illusions, the Greens are part of the cobbled together Labor government.

Continue reading "A Greens dream is a nightmare for the rest of us" »

I am 19 years old and last Monday night there was a party at my friend’s house.

Not just any party, but a holiday-launching, noise-polluting, parent-make-grumbling kind of party. There were girls too, lots of them. I didn’t go.

Instead I was stuck to the edge of my couch with my eyes glued to the television. They were going to talk about euthanasia on Q&A.

Continue reading "Gutless politicians don’t speak for me on ethics" »

Dear Mum,

This illness has gone on long enough. I can’t bear to see you suffer any more. I know you are going to say in your usual way, ‘don’t worry about me, I’ll be ok’, but it is becoming hard to see what the point of it all is anymore.

I am worried about you, really worried. You shouldn’t have to live through this. This cancer isn’t who you really are.

I really don’t think I can bring the kids again. The thought of them seeing you like this – with no hair, helpless to look after yourself, those blotches on your skin, your face screwed up in pain – is killing me.

Continue reading "Who is euthanasia really for? A letter from a loving son" »

We all have to pay tax. And then we have to die.

These two fundamentals are well understood by most Australians - that’s what I surmise from our latest Auspoll. Somewhat astonishingly, to me anyway, a massive 76 per cent of Australians we asked this week said people with terminal illnesses should be allowed to choose euthanasia without breaking the law.

76 per cent is an extraordinary figure. It’s hard to get that for a tax cut. We thought we would find a modest majority on this question, but backing from four out of five Australians for the right to choose the timing and manner of our inevitable exit is very emphatic.

Continue reading "The issue that will not die: 76% support for euthanasia" »

I’ve upset a lot of people over the years. At first I thought this was due to my unwavering history of frank and fearless journalism but it turns out people just find me rather annoying.

It is for this reason that I find the euthanasia debate a little bit worrying. I’ve seen the way my mother looks at me sometimes.

There are also fiscal considerations. I am already in my mid-thirties and drink and smoke far too much. If I were bumped off now it would likely save the hospital system a great deal of money and - from what my bosses tell me - have no discernible impact on national productivity.

This is not just a fear for myself of course but a fear for all of us who are vulnerable at times.

Continue reading "The problem with euthanasia is living can be harder" »

We let my grandma starve to death.

It was horrible to watch - hopefully not so horrible for her, as she had bucketloads of morphine to keep her “comfortable”.

She’d had Alzheimer’s for years, and had been in a home for about two of those. Some in the home lived in a happy daze, believing their loved ones were still alive, or maybe that they were really sunning themselves on a beach somewhere rather than sitting in a bland corridor that smelled like vomit and Dettol.

Continue reading "When starving a loved one to death is an act of love" »

The term ‘good death’ seems to be an oxymoron.

But for those who’ve cared for a terminally ill loved one, the ancient Greek definition of the word ‘euthanasia’ is appropriate.

In the past month, the right to die debate has been given oxygen (pun intended) by three separate cases in Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Continue reading "We’ll let people starve to death but not go painlessly" »

Once again euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke is playing games with the law. Today he’s holding a meeting in Hobart to instruct listeners in the finer details of how to dispatch themselves quickly and painlessly. 

Dr Nitschke has become an Olympian at skating on thin legal ice. For years he has been pirouetting around Australian police after friends of his received a few words of friendly advice and killed themselves. He was recently grilled by immigration officials in the UK before he was allowed to do a whistle-stop tour for geriatric crowds around the country. He’ll be touring the US in September. 

Because he is not actually killing people, just instructing them on how they can kill themselves, he appears to be acting within the letter of the law.

Continue reading "Latest push for mercy killings is dangerously ill informed" »

The yellow bumper sticker on his suitcase says “I’d rather die like a dog” and if anyone knows how dogs die it’s Dr Philip Nitschke, who slit one’s throat when he was a teenager.

It’s a story which Nitschke wishes would go away. But in the context of his latest snappy euthanasia slogan, plastered over his luggage as he was questioned in Heathrow this weekend, it’s one that is worth re-telling.

Nitschke has told it a few times in media profiles - reluctantly, because he is aware his critics regard it as a pointer to adult instability, rather than the isolated act of a homesick 15-year-old boarder sent to live in Adelaide with an abusive landlord whose barking dog was driving him mad.

“It got so grim there…you feel like killing the people involved and you know you can’t do that and you end up killing the dog,” Nitschke told Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope in 2007.

Continue reading "Let’s throw another pensioner on the barbie" »