Voluntary Assisted Dying

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (16:35): In 2003, as a 17 year old, which is almost 20 years to the day, I gave the following speech as part of the Naracoorte Lions Youth of the Year competition. Today I read this speech into Hansard, as follows, knowing that voluntary assisted dying is now finally available to South Australians:

Lions Youth of the Year 2003

Good afternoon, Lions Members, Ladies and Gentlemen.

If you were sentenced to a life of pain, incurable, everpresent, and intolerable would you want the right to choose death?

We all value our rights to be safe, to vote, to receive healthcare, to gain an education. Should one of those rights be the right to die?

Euthanasia derives from the Greek word meaning 'good death'. And voluntary euthanasia is the practice of mercifully ending a person's life in order to release that person from an incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or an undignified death. A doctor prescribes medication to a patient, to allow that person to die peacefully, with dignity and on his or her own terms. What I propose to you is that voluntary euthanasia should become legal in our society.

Many of us are unaware that a form of euthanasia does take place everyday. It is called 'passive euthanasia', which involves not doing something to prevent death, as when doctors refrain from resuscitating a terminally ill patient. It is at the consent of the person through a Living Will, or by their family. What I have found is that Passive and Voluntary Euthanasia are very similar as they both have the same outcome: the death of a patient on humanitarian grounds…

Allowing Voluntary euthanasia to be legalised would mean giving people with a terminal illness the right to choose between suffering and the painful inevitable. We must also realise that suffering is not done alone for it is not only the patient who has to endure, but their family.

In some stage of our lives, we will be affected by disease. In some cases, that disease may be fatal. The effect this has upon a person or family is catastrophic. The loss of income, costs of medication, hospital fees and the terrible amount of emotional and physical pain. I personally have seen this happen to my family and the heartache we went through is something no one can fully describe.

All we wanted to see was our loved one healthy and happy again. However, we knew that after all the miracles of medicine were performed, nothing would prevail. I often wondered if there were any other options available for families like mine if the pain was too much to bear. But I knew there was none.

Not everyone in society who decided they did not want to live could have euthanasia. Neither could a doctor decide to take matters into his or her own hands. That is why if euthanasia were to be legalised the most important thing would be management and proper legal safe guards.

People may argue that the advanced medical treatments of today and Palliative Care render Voluntary Euthanasia unnecessary. Although, yes, in some cases they do 'provide successful medical outcomes'; it does not always mean that that is what is best for the patient. Therefore, we should maintain that the primary objective of health-care providers should be the relief from suffering rather than the preserving of life, at any cost.

Terminally ill patients are concerned about what the last phase of their lives will be like. Not merely because of fears that their dying might involve them in great suffering, but also because of the desire to retain their dignity and as much control over their lives as possible.

People with terminal illnesses do not want to die. They do not want to be put in a situation where they have to consider their sometimes agonising existence against the blessed relief of death, but unfairly as life has been dealt, they do consider it. They are undoubtedly some of the most courageous people on this earth, and as a society we could at least grant them the right to choose.

'To die peacefully, when it is no longer possible to live peacefully.'

Back to the present day, after 16 previous attempts spanning 27 years our voluntary assisted dying is now in place in South Australia. I want to acknowledge the work of our Attorney-General, the Hon. Kyam Maher MLC; our Minister for Health, Chris Picton; the many public servants and clinicians involved in putting together the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill; and also the many advocates, in particular a passionate local of mine, Anne Bunning. Thank you for what you have done for South Australians.