Photo: DWD NSW

Persistent lobbying by state Dying with Dignity Groups, Andrew Denton (listen to this excellent interview https://7ampodcast.com.au/episodes/spotlight-how-death-became-the-fight-of-andrew-dentons-life) and his Go Gentle Australia team, along with our group, and individuals,culminated in this incredible progress, in the last five years.My late friend and mentor Rev. Trevor Bensch would have been delighted at this progress – something that we have been working for since we co-founded the group in February 2009. I sincerely thank all members of our group who contacted MP’s, wrote letters, signed petitions, made donations etc.

The Australian Capital Territory recently called for submissions to help develop their guidelines for a proposed VAD bill and it appears this could be debated this year. Interestingly the ACT are looking to have a point of difference and hopefully it will overall be a better model by combining the better points of each state VAD act. I have made a submission to ACT on behalf of our group.The Northern Territory disappointingly has said they will not discuss a new bill until after their next election.

Victoria and Western Australia will be reviewing their VAD laws this year. It is hoped that the new federal government which is more sympathetic to VAD legislation will review the restriction on telehealth access, and move to cover VAD services by medicare benefits.

Overseas. Austria’s VAD law is now in effect. Canada is considering an in depth report to improve their law MAiD as the VAD law is known as in Canada. Ireland & Scotland and UK have not progressed since last year . A number of USA states are considering legislation in addition to the 11 States and territories that have VAD access. Portugal are trying to get their legislation finalised. France is due to present a report by the end of the year following overwhelming support by the French Citizens’ Council.

Sadly Church hierarchy, for example, the Catholic Diocese of Sydney and some conservative “liberal” politicians continue not to accept the social change of VAD and are actively trying to reverse the legislative progress, despite 3 out of 4 Catholics supporting VAD as a compassionate end-of-life Choice. For example, Monica Doumit published a call to arms in the Catholic Weekly. I made a detailed response to the fears, lies and distortions she had in this article but the Catholic Weekly refused to publish this response even though we offered to have it in a paid advert. If a reader would like a copy of this response please contact me via our website. Because of this continued opposition and the need to have the laws passed in the territories, it is hoped that you will continue to be a member of our group.

It is hoped that the recent Advance Care Planning week has made people more aware of the need for a comprehensive Advance Care Directive particularly in respect to stating wishes should dementia become an issue. PLEASE discuss your end of life wishes with your family, and appoint a person to speak on your behalf if you are unable to do so.

Despite experiencing severe ill health my desire to advocate for VAD continues. Best wishes, Ian

May 19, 2022  It took many years of lobbying for this additional compassionate end of life choice, however the NSW Legislative Council, after considering around 100 adverse amendments in a long debate, and rejecting them all, passed the final stage of the VAD Bill 2021 by a substantial majority of 23 votes to 15. The Bill had passed the Lower House 52 votes to 32 on the last sitting day of 2021.   The final version of the VAD Bill was then adopted in the Lower House on 19.5.2022.

A previous NSW Bill was lost by just one vote in 2017, about the same time Victoria passed their VAD Act.

This is an emotional time, as I think back to my late friend and mentor, Rev Trevor Bensch, who co-founded our group with me early in 2009.  Trevor was a hospital chaplain, and some of what he had witnessed led him to support the VAD choice.  We met with The Advertiser reporter Jill Pengelley in the vestry of North Adelaide Baptist Church, and this article was our first piece of publicity!

We have updated our terminology since to reflect that used in all Australian VAD legislation.

Above: Rev Trevor Bensch with our first Patron, Kym Bonython AC, DFC, AFC

I must thank every person who has written and spoken to MPs, those who have shared their stories of loved ones who endured needless suffering at the end of their lives, every Voluntary Assisted Dying Group in each state and territory, Andrew Denton and the team at Go Gentle Australia, Rev Dr Craig de Vos B.V.Sc., Dip.P.S., B.Th.(Hons.), Ph.D., and so many others who have assisted me in our part in reaching this goal. Huge thanks go also to Alex Greenwich MP, all the co-sponsors of the VAD Bill, Adam Searle MLC for his work in the Legislative Council, and every MP who spoke and voted to pass the Bill.

Of course the final step in VAD legislation throughout Australia is to have the Right of the Territories to enact VAD legislation restored.  This was taken away in what is known as the ‘Andrews Bill’ by the Howard Government, after our Northern Territory under the guidance of Marshall Perron became the first jurisdiction in the world to pass a ‘Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995’ to give end of life choice.

We do need to be aware that it will be18 months before VAD actually becomes available in NSW, to allow for setting up all the facets of the Bill re access.

To those who have opposed this legislation – we do remind you that the key word is voluntary and there is no compulsion for you to use the law in any way.  We all support more funding for palliative care, and better access to palliative care in remote and country areas, but also know that the Voluntary Assisted Dying choice is needed in addition to the best possible PC.

History has been made and the wishes of a huge majority of the community have been respected..

Ian Wood, Spokesperson.

By working together we have made this happen!

Our grateful thanks go to Kyam Maher MLC for initiating this Bill in memory of his Mother, Viv.  What an outstanding memorial!!  Thanks also go to Dr Susan Close for her contribution in the House of Assembly.  Then more thanks to all involved in the campaign including the VADSA team led by Frances Coombe, together with Anne Bunning, Susie Byrne, and Julia Anaf.  Plus Dr Roger Hunt, Jane Qualmann, Angie Miller, Kym Watson, Rev Michael Dowling and Rev Dr Craig de Vos have all been invaluable SA advocates for compassionate end-of- life choice. Apologies to those I have omitted!

At this time we also remember with gratitude those campaigners who have died waiting for the law to be passed.  These include our group Co-founder, Rev Trevor Bensch, our former Patron Kym Bonython, Bob Such MP and folk such as Mary Gallnor.

Others outside of SA who have mentored and assisted me to reach this stage include Tanya Battel, Penny Hackett, Shayne Higson, Geoffrey Williams, Adrian Price, Rev Ken Devereux, Mike Gaffney and Norma Jamieson, also Andrew Denton and Kiki Paul of Go Gentle Australia, ……………

Now we shift our focus to Queensland, New South Wales and the 2 Territories.

Ian Wood, Co-founder and Spokesperson, having a quiet celebration.

4.11.2019

Mr Martyn Iles
Australian Christian Lobby
Eternity House
4 Campion Street
DEAKIN ACT 2600

Dear Mr Iles,
“God uses the challenges and trials of life, in all its phases and seasons, to train us and make us better” and “Euthanasia is our vain attempt to deny and reject God’s plan for suffering”.    [To quote from a poster on your ACL Facebook]

What a horrible, vindictive, abusive, sadistic God you portray!  Statements like yours make it readily understandable why Australians are leaving the church in droves.

Thankfully, my concept of God is of love, empathy and compassion. I was given a brain with which to think, and that thinking motivates me to aim to live a good and moral life, yet would also enable me to rationally choose a medically assisted death should I be faced with dying with intolerable suffering. You, and your associates at ACL, are of course welcome to suffer as much as you wish, as that would be your choice, but how dare you tell others what they must endure!

Let’s take just three case examples using your twisted logic. Thousands more are readily available.
Example 1.
Jason, a victim as a young child of the paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.  You can read that Jason is certainly undergoing “the challenges and trials of life” and then you try to tell us that in some warped way your God is using these challenges to “train” Jason and make him “better”!!!!

Jason: “In 1976, when I was turning 13, I was attending the Mercy Nuns convent (St Malachy’s) at Edenhope. Father Gerry Ridsdale lived right near the school and he was the school manager. I was an altar boy and he was always asking me to come to his house, saying that he had some jobs for me to do there. My mother used to insist that I should go.

“He used to assault me at his house, in his car and at the church (including at the altar when the church was empty and locked). This went on for two years. He did everything to me that you can imagine. He penetrated me countless times.

“After each molestation, he would grant me Absolution,……”
(Ref: http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/55 )

Example 2.
Flora, had been suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for 40 years, and for the last two years she was, quite rationally, pleading for help to die. Yet you are stating that these years of suffering are to “train” Flora and her loving daughter Tracey. You state Flora’s suffering is “God’s plan” and then cruelly say that Flora’s plea for assistance to die is her “vain attempt” to reject this plan of God.

Flora, pictured here in her last days, dying from Multiple Sclerosis. (Right, before her MS)

Her daughter, Tracey Taylor said: ‘Mum was just left to suffer – it was torture, absolute torture.  We were all around her when she passed but it wasn’t peaceful. These pictures are what people need to see – this is why we are fighting for the right to die. There wasn’t a thing we could do to help free her from her pain. We had morphine and sleeping pills and she begged us to help her end it, but we couldn’t. She was like a prisoner of war who had been in a concentration camp.So why is it OK for a human to suffer? The Government need to see why people want the choice to decide when to die.’  (Ref: https://www.facebook.com/shoutforflora/ )

Example 3.  “RIP Keith”.  It is impossible to understand why you have no EMPATHY for Keith in his time of need!. You are brutally suggesting that Joan is being somehow “trained” to make her a “better” person!!

RIP Keith Died October 26 2013, aged 85 years
Joan says: I’m writing to state my case for the legislation of choice for an assisted death. On Friday 1 November 2013 I buried my husband of 61 years. Early this year he was diagnosed with aggressive Lymphoma which was strangling his Intestine. Sounds horrendous, doesn’t it?

His final 3 days were spent in hospital and on the 3rd night he lapsed into semiconsciousness. He had been having litres of fluid drained from his abdomen at intervals during the treatment process and in the early hours of the 4th day fluid in large quantities continued to rise into his throat as he was gurgling and drowning while he struggled dreadfully to get a breath. All the while he kept raising his hand to his head imploring someone to help him. This inhumane action continued without ceasing for 7 hours!! ! How I wished we lived in a compassionate, loving society that approved an injection that would save him from this hideous state.

A Nurse entered the room towards the end, saying, “I have been crying reading his Advanced Health Directive where he wrote that it was his wish to have some kind person euthanise him.” This document had been signed by him, a Doctor and a Justice of the Peace some years ago but of course that wish is entirely overlooked by Australian Law at the present time. It was just his wish – as it was mine. Towards the end, one and a half litres of blood soaked fluid gushed out of his mouth before he took his final breath.

Those hours will haunt me forever. Why should anyone die that horribly?

When it’s your own family having to endure this cruel, inhumanity and it’s you sitting beside the bed waiting and wishing someone had bitten the bullet for change on this grievous, outmoded law of ours, you feel and know the need of the urgency for change. As a practising Christian couple we viewed the present law as ungodly. We are God’s hands and feet, he has no other, and while we do nothing this horrendous practice will continue. Please, please be strong enough to give the Ending Life with Dignity (No2) Bill 2013 the thumbs up. The majority of Australians would be enormously relieved. South Australia would be
applauded.

Sincerely, Joan S     A Christians supporting Choice for V.E. member

Dear Ian,
As requested I’m forwarding my plea to your S.A. Pollies – all of them. Feel free to send this to your local paper should you feel inclined. Fond wishes and I pray that God’s blessing be upon you and yours. Joan S.

Note by Ian Wood.
Joan prepared this plea in early 2014 to go the South Australian politicians, and has since endorsed it to go to all MPs throughout Australia.  It is included in the book The Damage Done, published by Go Gentle Australia and Andrew Denton.
Joan, a committed Christian, pleads that our politicians support Voluntary Assisted Dying choice.

A sermon from Rev Craig Kilgour, of NZ, whose nephew had an assisted death in Canada, sums up the considered, compassionate Christian approach in support of Voluntary Assisted Dying choice. 

Conclusion of Rev Kigour’s sermon …….
Let me finish this with what my family members said and repeated often using these words about my nephew’s death: It was compassionate, it was humane, it was right and good.
And the family are very proud and humbled with the courage he showed in his battle with cancer. And to me no one has the right to be critical and judgmental of the choice he made.
So for me and my family this is not a philosophical debate, it is not a theological debate, it is not a theoretical debate, it is a reality and it was right, and my nephew was fortunate he lived in Canada.

Mr Iles.  To re-iterate.  Please spare all thinking Australians from the imposition of your bigoted views on us.

Sincerely
Ian Wood

Additional comment from our Patron, Rev Dr Craig de Vos
Many oppose voluntary assisted dying by arguing that it’s playing God. But so is artificially prolonging life. And so is allowing people to suffer a horrific death when there are more humane options. This is not consistent with the compassionate, empathetic God whom I see in Jesus––a Jesus who spent much of his earthly life working to ease and eliminate human suffering. ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ is not just consistent with that. It is, in fact, a continuation of the
ministry of Jesus.

An outstanding group of experts gave us the facts in this Forum on voluntary assisted dying support. Essential viewing!

The emotional plea by Jan, wife of Tim Edwards, and their daughter, Jessica, who spoke at the meeting about the torturous death of Tim from mesothelioma certainly bought tears to my eyes! I just cannot understand why our MPs continue to ignore such futile suffering, especially those who profess to be Christian. Where is their compassion?

I had the privilege of meeting Tim not long before he died, and together we went to lobby our local MP, Jai Rowell.

Every MP who is against this choice, and all members of the ‘ACL” (Australian Christian Lobby) and the ‘HOPE no euthanasia’ group should watch the complete forum and become familiar with the truth behind the issue, and then perhaps understand why up to 85% of Australians support voluntary assisted dying.

Ian Wood

Sincere thanks to Dying With Dignity Victoria and the team, Andrew Denton and the Go Gentle Australia/Stop Victorians Suffering team for your unstinting efforts and to every MP who voted for compassionate choice.

Shame that we failed by one vote in our NSW upper house a week earlier.

Ian Wood on behalf of all the members Australia-wide of Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia group.

It was with considerable emotion that I watched the final vote in the Victorian Parliament Lower House on Friday morning 20^th October after a debate of marathon proportions.

   The successful vote is announced by the Speaker.

I trust that the Victorian Upper House will be equally supportive so that the Bill can be finally enacted.

Sincere thanks go to Health Minister Hennessy and Premier Andrews, Andrew Denton and the Go Gentle Australia team, Dying with Dignity, Prof. Brian Owler, the MPs who spoke and voted in support of this legislation and all the others involved in the research and effort to get the VAD Bill to this stage.

This is an important step in giving all Australians the additional option of compassionate choice in dying as well as access to the best possible palliative care.

We are all aware this additional choice is supported by a substantial majority of Australians, including around 70% of Christians.

Since the Northern Territory law was passed 20 years ago, only to be overridden by PM Howard and the Federal Government the following year, there have been at least 30 other attempts. Opposition by a vocal religious hierarchy has been the main reason why these attempts have failed. The Federal Government cannot overturn state legislation.

I encourage supporters in every state to talk with or write to their Members of Parliament NOW! If your MP supports the issue, please encourage them. If they are undecided or oppose, ask them to explain their concerns or objections in detail. If these concerns or objections are passed on to me via our website contact form, I will endeavour to respond to them as soon as possible.

Congratulations to Andrew Denton and his team for collating and publishing this book.

“The Damage Done” can be downloaded as a free e-book from the Go Gentle Australia website.  http://www.gogentleaustralia.org.au/the_damage_done

As well as reading “The Damage Done”, please listen to Andrew Denton’s brilliant, well articulated and factual speech at the National Press Club, Canberra on the topic of assisted dying.   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-10/national-press-club:-andrew-denton/7716946

Have you looked at the Andrew Denton Podcasts I mentioned in an earlier post?

http://www.vep.org.au/audio