DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:33): The state of Oregon in the USA passed the Death with Dignity Act in November 1994, with 51 per cent in favour. After a number of legal manoeuvres to try to repeal the act, something similar to the referendum at the 1997 general election rejected a further bid to repeal the act by a margin of 60 per cent to 40 per cent. The Death with Dignity Act was finally enacted in late 1997.

Since then, a total of 596 residents of Oregon have used the provisions of the act to end their life. Oregon has a population of 3.8 million. In the 14 years that death with dignity has been available to people with a terminal illness, an average of 43 people have made use of the act each year. South Australia has a population of 1.7 million. Applying the Oregon experience to South Australia, we could expect approximately 19 people each year to make use of a similar act in South Australia.

Have the floodgates opened in Oregon since the Death with Dignity Act was passed? The answer is no. Have the elderly been murdered using the Death with Dignity Act? The answer is no. Has palliative care research and funding declined since the Death with Dignity Act? No; in fact, the funding has increased. Have depressed people used the Death with Dignity Act to end their life? No, depressed people are not eligible to use the act.

Are doctors using the Death with Dignity Act to decide what patients should die? The patient must make the decision, which must be documented and witnessed, with further waiting periods after the decision is made and then reconfirmed before the prescription is written. Have vulnerable people been targeted to be killed using the Death with Dignity Act provisions? No; each case history in Oregon shows that the patient requested assistance to die with dignity and made the choice themselves. Has death tourism developed in Oregon since 1998? No; provisions of the act are available only to residents of Oregon, such as a registered voter. So, why is it that in South Australia we continue to be misled, lied to and encouraged to be afraid of voluntary euthanasia?

When I heard the story of Tony Nicklinson in the UK (a previously active man who had had a locked-in syndrome since a stroke in 2005) and how he starved himself to death a couple of weeks after the British High Court rejected his attempt to have a doctor legally end his life; when I also heard about Mark Leigep, who has been in a coma since an accident in 2006, and the dreadful dilemma of his mother, Joanne Dunn, about asking doctors to starve her son to death as this was the only way out of a desperate situation; when I hear young people overwhelmingly telling me they want to choose when and how they die if life becomes intolerable—I know that it is time for South Australians to be given the right to die.

In Oregon, the provisions of the Death with Dignity Act are available to people with a terminal illness. In my view, it is people like Mark Leigep who should be entitled to a dignified death, and I also believe that those whose life has become intolerable should also have access to drugs to assist them to die in a dignified way and, if they choose, in the company of their family and friends.

We know that in Oregon most people who use the Death with Dignity Act are elderly and suffering from cancer. The judgement that someone should be forced to stay alive if life has become intolerable to them—that medical treatments cannot control the pain, the indignity or the effects of the cancer, and they have to wait until they can get enough doctors to agree that they are expected to die within six months—is to me inhumane and not a judgement that I as a citizen of South Australia feel entitled to make. It is time that we made more informed, objective and compassionate decisions to allow people for whom life has become intolerable to die at a time of their choosing and to die with dignity.