The largest ever e-petition to come before the Tasmanian Parliament was tabled this morning in the House of Assembly.
The full petition supporting the End of Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill 2020 was signed by 13,082 Tasmanians. It consists of 11,699 signatories to the e-petition, tabled alongside the paper petition of 1,383 signatories.
“This massive petition is another demonstration of the overwhelming public support for laws that show compassion to people whose pain and suffering cannot be relieved with palliative care,” said Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor.
The signatures were collected through a community engagement campaign run by Natalie and Jacqui Gray of Your Choice Tas, and independent MLC, Mike Gaffney. The Grays took on the task after the death of their mother, Diane, last year from cancer.
“Jacqui and Natalie have poured their hearts into this very personal campaign, and it was a privilege to table the petition on their behalf,” said O’Connor.
Jacqui Gray, Nat Gray & Cassy O’Connor display the VAD petition.
Voluntary Assisted Dying has in recent years been legalised in Victoria and Western Australia.
“The evidence from those states is that the laws work as intended, and the fearmongering of ideological opponents is baseless,” said O’Connor. She claimed that a majority of Tasmanians from across the political spectrum support voluntary assisted dying reform.
“With the legislation soon to come before Parliament, we hope every Member of the House of Assembly and Legislative Council will reflect on the significance of this huge petition,” she said. “It represents the voice of the community, demanding compassionate change. It’s past time Tasmania’s laws reflect the compassion and respect for human dignity found right across our community.”
The legislation that will be tabled in the Legislative Council on the 27 August, with the second reading debate starting on 15 September. Supporters hope it will get through the Council and go to the House of Assembly for final passage.
Similar legislation was last debated in the parliament in 2017 in a bill brought by O’Connor and then Member for Franklin Lara Giddings, but did not pass.
O’Connor believes the debate has ‘moved on’ since then because in Australia there are now jurisdictions that have voluntary assisted dying. “A lot of that capacity for scaremongering around this framework has dissipated, because we can see that this works.”
“Our campaign initially started out as a promise to our mum in her final days of 2019 to advocate for voluntary assisted dying to be legalised in Tasmania,” said Jacqui Gray.
“Since then our campaign has become the voice for all of our loved ones who have died in intolerable pain and have not had the right to choose a peaceful death through voluntary assisted dying.”
The sisters recounted the story of their mother who was diagnosed with stage four gastric cancer at age 56; by this time it had already metastasised to her umbilical region and was inoperable.
“She underwent six months of intensive chemotherapy, unfortunately without any great success, and during that six months she experienced obviously a lot of incredible suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy,” said Jacqui Gray. “But the turning point for mum was in fact, after a round radiation, she experienced a stomach perforation…her stomach burst open and the contents of her stomach and the acid spilled into her peritoneal wall, causing the cancer to spread throughout her body.”
The family were told at the time that it was unknown whether or not she would survive the surgery.
“No amount of pain medication could relieve her pain at the time,” she said. “From that moment, her life became living hell; she was told that it was likely that she would experience another perforation…she would have to endure the last of her days, lying on a hospital bed waiting to pass away.”
That was when she raised the topic of taking her own life with her daughters.
“She told us that she wanted to get her home to help her take her own life, so she didn’t have to suffer the way she’d seen so many other people suffer,” Gray said. “So this, hopefully this legislation will stop other people from having to go through the trauma.”
The sisters made a promise to their mother in her final week to campaign for laws that would allow voluntary assisted dying.
“In the last three months of her life she suffered incredibly. Obviously, from an emotional point of view, we desperately want this legislation passed. We don’t believe that anyone should have to suffer the way our mum did. And we want to protect those people from experiencing a death like she experienced.”
COMMENTS: Please comment on this issue in the Forum topic Voluntary Assisted Dying.
DYING WITH DIGNITY TAS: Compassion, Dignity Needed on VAD Legislation.
