We were both very pleased when we received this letter of support from the Senator.

Burston clearly states “I will be supporting the bill”. Yet eight days later he voted against the bill! He did not speak on the Bill during the debate. Readers will note that the Senator has One Nation Senator on his letterhead, and signs himself Senator for United Australia Party.  In retrospect that should have alerted my to the fact he could be two-faced!

Combined with Senator Georgiou, who also changed from a vote Yes, to a vote No, the Bill was lost 36 votes to 34.

I will leave readers to decide on the morality and ethics of this situation. Just what pressure was applied at the very last minute to Burston, and by whom?

After the vote, I sent Senator Burston’s letter back to him, with my comment written on it. Clearly I was not happy!

Carol was quite devastated.  Obviously Burston has no thought or compassion for the damage his change of position has done for the truly vulnerable – those like Carol.

Carol also wrote back to Senator Burston, and with her permission I include the letter here. I will update this post if we receive a reply from the Senator.

Dear Senator Burston

Our hearts/spirits were intensely lifted by your positive letter to us, dated 7 August 2018 (Ref TS20180807) advising us that you absolutely were going to vote for the Restoring Territory Rights legislation, and this gave us hope that it would ultimately lead to “euthanasia- end of life choices”.

I write to now to express my disgust and betrayal of this letter of support. You have turned your back on us all, by voting against the bill. I/we were so crushed by it, especially as your vote destroyed all of our hopes.

As I advised you in my earlier letter, I have my diagnosis of a type of dementia, which is killing off my brain cells until its wrathful journey ends all of my brain functioning. It is taking my world away. I will not allow my family to view me this way.

My mother died with an illness that gave her physical unbearable suffering due to her broken fragile bones, her shoulders and ribs that would not mend  Her every day was spent in tears, screams for help and pleas to end her suffering.   Our memories are still raw in sadness with what we had to share/endure with her.

My respected Neurologist states: “once I am in that demented state ‘YOU won’t know – what you are doing etc.”  However my family, spouse, children and grandchildren will share this horror perhaps for their remaining lives. 

I would ask you Senator Burston, to visit a bed ridden dementia ward (we, my sister and I, called it death row). During your visit (unannounced) I would ask you to put yourself in the place of one of these people there. Would you prefer to live out your existing years like that? Or visit your wife/family or anyone that you love, in those circumstances? Please accept and agree this is a cruel and barbaric existence that YOU have determined by your vote they have to endure.

When I, and my husband with my children, accept that my brain ability has deteriorated so that it no longer functions, I/we will be forced to leave Australia for Dignitas Switzerland, to “end my life there compassionately”.  Costly -and emotionally traumatic for myself and husband and for my children.

I/we and my family will “NEVER” put me into one of those end of life nursing facilities.

Senator Burston, your written words of promise – to vote towards changing the end of life laws – to give people the right to” die with dignity”- could have given me a quality of life to freely enjoy peace of mind, to be able to focus only on seizing every possible day, until my health ceases to allow me to do so.

Then allow me and others a rightful humane gift of ending our lives when all hope has gone.

You, Senator, who appeared to have a human conscience, have betrayed us!

Yours, in confusion.

Carol Cronk.

36 Golding Street,
Yamba NSW 2464       21.8.2018

Here is my comment that they posted briefly, then took down.

I respectfully take issue with some of the points he [Brad Mattes] makes and ask for clarification, and make a comment on other points.

– Mr Mattes states: Assisted suicide or euthanasia is currently legal in Albania, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Japan, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Would Mr Mattes please provide me with a link to the Act of Parliament in Albania and Japan that legalises assisted suicide or [voluntary] euthanasia?

The closest I can find is that they both permit turning off life support systems, which is also permitted in   Australia.

– Next he states: Re Netherlands In 2013 — just 11 years later — it’s estimated they euthanized 650 babies. The use of the word ‘euthanized’ here is simply not correct! Research articles by Neil Francis, Dying For Choice, here and Prof, Colleen Cartwright confirm this.

On 12^th June 2013 the KNMG [Royal Dutch Medical Association] issued a media release announcing that it  had published a position paper on ‘Medical end-of-life decisions in neonates with very serious defects’.  The media  release stated that of around 175,000 babies born each year in the Netherlands, “around 650 infants will die,  usually as a result of very severe congenital defects and in spite of the best possible intensive care treatment.” 

The KNMG was absolutely clear: 650 babies a year were likely to die. Some newborns die from catastrophic  malformities shortly after birth, some die despite attempted medical interventions and some die after withdrawal of futile interventions and administration of comfort care, possibly aggressive. Death as a result of an intervention whose direct intention is to hasten death, is rare. Perhaps 2 babies a year.

– Mr Mattes states re Belgium: “definitions for conditions that qualify for euthanasia have continually loosened”. The criteria for access in Belgium remains — “the patient is in a medically futile condition of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that can not be alleviated, resulting from a serious and incurable disorder  caused by illness or accident.”

– He then implies a correlation between euthanasia and a high suicide rate in Belgium. To quote Neil Francis again (post):  “If the reason Belgium is the second highest is due to its assisted dying law, how come Finland, which Mr Mattes doesn’t mention by name and which  has no such law, is higher?

It also begs the question:

If assisted dying law were the fundamental cause of a high general suicide rate, how come Switzerland (statute since 1942), Luxembourg (statute since 2009) and the Netherlands (practice since the early 1980s and statute since 2002) have rates that are much lower, all key facts that Mr Mattes also fails to mention?”

-Would Mr Mattes please comment on why the suicide rate in Belgium has dropped since the introduction of assisted dying there in 2002? Obviously he cannot attribute a high suicide rate among Australian dairy farmers to assisted dying (it would surely be the low milk price) and the suicide rate in Oregon USA appears to be very closely related to the unemployment rate rather than assisted dying law.

– Mr Mattes strongly criticizes the Canadian Bill C-14, in marked contrast to a statement made by Dr Cindy Forbes, President of the Canadian Medical Association, which included:

“Ottawa, June 17, 2016 –

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is pleased that historic federal legislation on medical aid in dying is now  in place. 

For the CMA, this important new law represents the culmination of years of work and consultation with physicians and the public. This extensive outreach informed our call for robust federal legislation to ensure access is not  impeded, protects vulnerable patients and respects the personal convictions of health care providers.

The NSW State Election is Saturday March 28, 2015

South Australian Voluntary Euthanasia Society (SAVES) also have the same article, but with more photos, in their Newsletter.

SAVES Newsletter (9) – Christian Support for Voluntary Euthanasia. SAVES send this to each South Australian MP.

http://www.saves.asn.au/bulletins/mp_eol_newsltr/mp_newsletter230215.pdf

Please read and pass on to your friends

A feature of the afternoon was the launch of the Pollies Register, that lists the support or otherwise of NSW MP’s and candidates on the issue of VOLUNTARY ASSISTED DYING for the Election on Saturday 28 March.

The LOWER HOUSE list may be found here, but please check for updates as they come in –
http://dwdnsw.org.au/documents/2015/pollies%20regsiter.pdf

Pro-Choice candidates for the Upper House can be found here –
http://dwdnsw.org.au/vote-for-pro-choice-candidates-in-the-nsw-election/

DWDnsw President Sarah Edelman gave an insight into why so many candidates and MPs have not responded. I have personally emailed or Facebooked each of these “non- responses” in an effort to get learn if they are Pro-Choice.
Sincere thanks to our NSW members who have made the effort to contact their candidates.

Speakers Trevor Khan, Nationals MLC and journalist Tracey Spicer gave harrowing stories behind why they support this issue

Christians Supporting Choice for VE is certainly not a political party, however we would encourage members to vote for Pro-Choice candidates who support Assisted Dying. Note that The Greens Policy is to strongly support this issue.

In the Upper House, please consider The Voluntary Euthanasia Party and the dynamic Shayne Higson, their lead candidate. If voting above the line on the Upper House white ballot paper you may wish to vote [1] VEP then give your usual preference the [2].

For the two major parties, Voluntary Assisted Dying is supposedly a ‘conscience’ issue. This makes the last vote on the Upper House Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill impossible to understand, given 4 out of 5 Australians are in support! Labor voted 61.5% in Favour of VE, 8 For / 5 Against. The Coalition had 0% in favour, all their votes were against or abstaining.

Canada’s Supreme Court has unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicides for mentally competent adults suffering an incurable disease. The Canadian Parliament has been given 12 months to enact legislation to comply with the Supreme Court guidelines.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-07/doctor-assisted-suicides-ban-lifted-in-canada/6077270

“The prohibition on physician-assisted dying infringes the right to life, liberty and security of the person in a manner that is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice,” the court wrote, adding that an absolute ban was not needed to ensure that vulnerable people are not coerced “to commit suicide at a time of weakness.”

In June 2014  Quebec Parliament passed an Act respecting end-of-life care, which allows terminally ill patients to choose an assisted death. The vote was 94 in favour and only 22 against, and all four political parties WORKED TOGETHER to achieve this result.  Until the Supreme Court ruling, that legislation seemed likely to be at least challenged and possibly overturned under federal criminal law.
Last August, the Canadian Medical Association altered its long-established opposition to doctors assisting in suicides. Its new policy allows physicians, within the bounds of laws, “to follow their conscience when deciding whether to provide medical aid in dying.” (NY TImes, 7.2.15)

It is now up to our Australian politicians, and the Australian Medical Association to emulate our Canadian friends!