Queensland euthanasia inquiry prompts plea for mercy from terminal patients

Updated

If you could choose "a good death" what would it look like? For terminal cancer patient Damon Spina the answer is simple. Thousands of others have had their say as Queensland considers legalising voluntary assisted dying.

Damon Spina's body is infested with terminal cancer.

The disease has stopped the use of his right arm, and weakened his leg.

And the 43-year-old knows the rest of his body could be next, including his ability to eat, speak and control his bowel.

Facing unbearable pain, Mr Spina is prepared for death. But he wants it to be a good one.

"I want to be recognised at the end of my life. I don't want to be the husk of a person that I am now," he said.

The former high school teacher was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2015.

Despite multiple surgeries and courses of radiation treatment, more cancers have appeared in his lungs, chest and lymph nodes.

The doctors' prognosis is blunt — more will come.

"As far as I'm aware, I have cancer travelling through my body and at this point in time I don't think there's any treatment that will cure me of that," he said.

Now unable to work, he says the time will come when he will want to end his life, on his terms, when he chooses.

He wants to die by legal, lethal injection, or ingestion.

"I talk about it as a peaceful ending rather than going through pain and suffering," he said.

"Knowing that I've got that choice, I don't have to worry as much as to what's going to happen.

"If I can do it on my terms, legally, and be surrounded by my friends and family, I think that would be a beautiful way to go and say farewell."

Mr Spina's story is one of hundreds being shared with the Queensland Parliament, as it investigates support for legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD).

'People are dying horrendously'

The inquiry is examining what a VAD scheme could look like in Queensland, including what safeguards would be needed to protect vulnerable people, and whether medical practitioners could conscientiously object.

Nearly 5,000 submissions have been sent in.

The issues being investigated include: whether an applicant should have a valid reason, be able to give consent and have capacity to make their decision, and whether a third party should assist in ending a person's life.

The inquiry will also analyse results from the VAD scheme in Victoria, which started last month.

Dying with Dignity Queensland President Jos Hall has been campaigning for decades to legalise VAD.

She said sick and vulnerable people are being forced into suicide, because they feel they have no other option.

"People are dying now. They're dying horrendously," she said.

"We haven't got figures from the Queensland Coroner, but in Victoria one person with a terminal illness per week, is committing suicide. And it's violent deaths."

The VAD scheme in Victoria has 68 safeguards and strict criteria applicants must meet before being granted permission to take the lethal drugs.

The restrictions include;

Being a Victorian resident

Being aged over 18

Being assessed by two doctors to have a terminal illness

Being assessed with intolerable pain that will likely cause death within six or 12 months if the illness is a neurodegenerative condition like motor neurone disease

Patients are also provided the medication in a locked box, to mix themselves before taking the fatal dose

It's a model that's largely supported by Ms Hall, who believes it could provide a blueprint for Queensland.

"I believe that we should largely follow the Victorian model," she said.

"But it is very restrictive in its timeframe of eligibility, six months generally or 12 months in progressive neurodegenerative diseases.

"We'd like to see that expanded."

'It's not just the elderly'

Supporters of VAD are asking the Queensland Government to introduce the laws and have them debated, before the next state election in October 2020.

Many argue each day VAD is illegal, it prolongs pain and suffering.

Brisbane woman Holly Warland is in her late 20s and has a degenerative disease — Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy — which causes the gradual deterioration of muscles from her chin down.

She describes her condition as "living with a death sentence," and has been documenting her health decline on a blog and social media.

"The unfortunate reality for me is that this condition will eventually make life unbearable for me and I want a safe and reliant option to end my life when I am ready," Ms Warland wrote.

"I never thought this was an issue I would become so passionate about, but when I stopped to think about it, it's my only humane option.

"I could wait until I die naturally, but that might be decades of more pain and suffering."

'Our job is to save lives'

One weighty opponent to VAD is the Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMAQ).

President Dr Dilip Dhupelia said the law could pose an ethical conflict with what doctors are sworn to do.

"Our job is to actually save people's lives," Dr Dhupelia said.

"It is very difficult for doctors to be faced with a situation where they've got to provide lethal injection to somebody that they've been looking after for 15, 20, 25 years.

"Doctors are people too. And they became doctors to actually save people's lives and do the right thing. So it's a difficult situation."

The group's opposition to VAD is backed by medical associations across the globe, including in America, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the World Medical Association.

The AMAQ represents more than 6,000 doctors — about 30 per cent of the registered cohort in Queensland.

Dr Dhupelia said if VAD was legalised, he would be very concerned about securing protections for doctors who conscientiously object to delivering a lethal injection.

"It means that when you actually ask a doctor to assist them in taking their own lives, or to consider that they wish to take their own lives, that the doctor can actually then declare to the patient that 'I actually have a religious, conscientious objection to do this', or 'I'm not comfortable in actually taking your life, because that's not what my philosophy as a doctor is'," he said.

The AMAQ says it is also worried the laws could be used to target vulnerable, elderly people.

"People can be coerced, and just because there's a law in Queensland, for them to feel that the community wants them to take their lives and that they're a burden to the community," Dr Dhupelia said.

Dr Dhupelia, along with other opponents, have voiced their preference for more funding to be directed into palliative care, to help patients with end-of-life care.

"We think that we can do very well given the right resources to look after these people and to make sure that they die with dignity and with comfort, with their loved ones and largely in their own homes," he said.

But Jos Hall disagreed, arguing quality of life couldn't always be achieved with medication and sedation.

"I think providing a comfortable and kind death is helping their patients," Ms Hall said.

"When you see how people die currently, even with the best palliative care, it is not always effective."

The inquiry will report back with a recommendation to government at the end of November this year.

Topics: suicide, community-and-society, health, euthanasia, doctors-and-medical-professionals, medical-ethics, qld

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