Having watched my mother take a year to die in pain and discomfort from a disease which was never diagnosed until 2 weeks before she passed away I would welcome legislation which would allow those that request it to die with dignity.At the moment it is perfectly legal to commit suicide yet to help a person to do this is illegal? Doesn’t make sense.The very fact of knowing that you have a way, if your life becomes totally unbearable, of peacefully releasing yourself from a painful or totally debilitating illness would go a long way to psychologically allow you to carry on.

I have witnessed two family members suffering dreadfully for years and, in both cases, from the time of diagnosis it was made clear that there was no hope of a cure - just management. Personally I think the “management” leaves a lot to be desired because the physical and psychological impact on a terminally ill person is beyond measure. It’s 24/7 and treatment (or management) can rarely address this. I do believe that some people in these situations would still cling to life and hope but not everybody. It should be a choice.

I couldn’t agree more Estelle. I was fortunate in some ways in that, because I live in Tasmania, I was only in England for the last month of my mother’s life. We would not subject a dog to what a lot of people have to go through and yet, those same people would say that animals are of a lower order. Palliative care does not work for everyone. My father was in a total morphine ‘coma’ for days. He has asked to be allowed to die but to no avail. People should have the choice.

I also watched my mother and my ex-partner die from cancer which subjected them both to a couple of years of agony which was not alleviated in any way with ‘management’. I also agree that this should be a choice and not be dictated to by do-gooders and religeous groups. Palliative care may work for some, but if my time ever comes, I can honestly say now that I am not interested in being kept alive to please anyone.

The prospect of our ultimate deaths has coloured civilisation throughout all time.  We’re scared of it.  We’re selfish of the company of the ones we love.  We find ways to ignore the prospect or perhaps gain a sense of reward at the eventuality it represents.

And yet we all die, eventually.

Both of my mother’s parents died a slow and traumatic death.  Each in their own way.  The trauma not only affected them, it affected each and every member of the family to the extent that it split a once loving bond between brother and sisters.

The Hospital and health workers did all they could and yet each and every one of us knew that there was little hope that the octogenerians would ever recover to have any more rewarding time in their lives.

They died horribly with the loving attention and comfort that those of us who could stand it could provide.  My parents have do not resucitate orders.  Their religion, not mine, forbids blood transfusions.  It is our strongest desire that, should death be inevitable, we have some form of control in the process.

The desire to live was strongly evident in both of my grandparents death.  They struggled hard to live.  Part of that may simply have been the biology of the situation because my Grandfather was compus to the end and he WANTED TO DIE.  But - that’s not allowed. Can’t be done.  It’s murder, you know.

Any of the lower animals that is suffering terminal pain we have no compunction in euthenasing.  Generally in the most painless way possible.

Human beings, fighting death in every way that they can, torture the ones that they love in the selfish hope that they will continue to provide them succor from their own fate.  It’s wrong, it’s pervese and it’s inhuman.

I strongly support people’s right to choose.

I am supportive of the notion of euthanasia, or a ‘good death’ - to be opposed to this is sadism, plain and simple.  However, because the question of when it is appropriate to administer death to another person has never been answered to my satisfaction, I actually oppose legislation to legalise killing.

Having shared a beer at the pub with Dr Nitschke many years ago, I know him to be a well-meaning and likeable gentleman.  However in 2008 I happened to hear the story of Erin Berg, a young mother in the grip of postnatal depression who attempted to take her own life using information published by Dr Nitschke.  Imagining the horrendous suffering that ensued for Erin, her husband, her infant children and her family, has been influential in forming my view against what is proposed here.  Her story was well told in the Weekend Australian Magazine story “When Erin chose to die”:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/when-erin-chose-to-die/story-e6frg8h6-1111116885923

My view of assisted-dying bears comparison to to our legal system where guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the rationale that it is better to let a certain number of guilty walk free than to wrongly convict one innocent.  Without seeking to minimise the suffering that is a pre-condition for a person to want to end their own life, I believe is better (less evil?) to let a certain number suffer a natural death than to risk wrongly ending the life of even one person.  While this system is far from perfect, in my opinion the suggestion that a fool-proof system can be devised for deciding who we may or may not legally kill is the stuff of dreams.

Despite the link made between being ‘anti-euthanasia’ and religiosity made by the original poster, I do not subscribe to any particular school of religious thought, and I take issue with any suggestion that opposition to voluntary euthanasia is rooted in dogmatic religious group-think.

May I humbly suggest to the editor that it would be responsible when discussing such matters to include a link to the Lifeline counselling service hotline 13 11 14 or SANE Helpline 1800 18 SANE (7263).

Thanks to TT for providing a forum to discuss this contentious topic.

Over the decades as a former nurse I was in the very privileged position to be present during the days and moments a large number of people. 

Because the deaths occurred in various hospital settings far too many were anything but the private peaceful end to life that we all want for ourselves and those who we love.  Hospitals aren’t like that they are not private places they are public places. All to often the terminally ill die in pain and lacking in human dignity despite the very best care and the desire of their carers that it were otherwise.

Many doctors and nurses, frequently those working in the field, argue that palliative care has come a long way and is now at level sufficient for the majority of the dieing to die a peaceful dignified death, oh how I wish that were true, but it isn’t.  Over the last thirty years palliative care has come along way but it is not a panacea.  And what is more the hundreds of relatives and friends who sat helplessly as they watched their loved ones die attests to the fact.

Palliative care has a place of course it does and it is an important place in the care of the terminally ill but all too often the patient outlives all the interventions and dies a long lingering and painful death (there is no point in gilding the lily or using platitudes) we all know that this is true.

So if we are about to have this debate again please let’s it be open and honest and not based on falsehoods or false promises of care and treatment that would be given if it were available but isn’t.  A morphine hallucinatory haze is not the same as a peaceful death it is the antithesis of a natural and peaceful death.

For an increasing number of people and I include myself:  I do not ask to be allowed to die with dignity at a time and place of my own choosing.  Rather I demand the right to die with dignity and if necessary at a time and place of my choosing in the presence my family and friends. 

I refuse the state and the medical profession the right to turn me into spluttering, doubly incontinent, skeletal old man in intractable pain gasping for breath and fighting for life.