I must admit I am baffled!

I am baffled that the Catholic Leader News, quoting the Salvation Army, (25.9.2020)  is using ‘love your neighbour’ as a reason for opposing Voluntary Assisted Dying!    Prolonging suffering is not an act of love!

I am baffled that the Vatican in their Samaritanus Bonus used the Parable of the Good Samaritan against VAD, and that they are still calling ‘euthanasia’ (VAD) evil and a grave sin.

I am baffled by a Catholic Church that in this century still insists that the use of contraception is intrinsically evil, that it is always immoral regardless of the intentions of the agents, the circumstances of the situation or the consequences of the action,” (Pope Paul VI)

Thankfully, and rationally, 3 out of 4 Catholics have demonstrated they are thinking and compassionate, and that they ignore the religious dogma against voluntary assisted dying just as an even bigger majority ignore the dogma against contraception.

As I stated in my Briefing recently to the Tasmanian Legislative Council, We are – Christians who believe that, as a demonstration of love and compassion, those with a terminal or hopeless illness should have the option of a pain-free, peaceful and dignified death with legal voluntary assisted dying.

Our vision essentially is – “Do unto others”, and “Love thy neighbour”, which leads to ‘How is love best served?’

Conservative Christians in the past opposed the abolition of slavery, opposed pain relief in childbirth for women, and opposed women becoming doctors and lawyers – we find a woman who passed her law exams in USA was told by a judge she could not practice as the “Law of the Creator” was she should be a wife and mother.  Conservative Christians opposed voting and property rights for women. In every case this Christian opposition to social change has been proved wrong!

Conservative Christians opposed marriage equality and discussion on sexual orientation.  We believe those Christians were wrong!

We should not forget that the church hierarchy indulged in a massive coverup of paedophile clergy, in many cases leading to the tragic suicide of the innocent victims Clearly those Christians were very wrong!

So how is love best served for a person who is about to die, but has suffering they find unbearable?

The ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) and many church hierarchy say hold that person’s hand, say that we are with you, but let the suffering continue. Where is their Christian empathy, we might well ask? The Vatican go a step further, saying that if the dying person has requested VAD, the chaplain or priest should ask that person, when they are at their most vulnerable, to admit their grave sin and attempt a death bed conversion back to accepting the church abhorrence of VAD. If this fails they should leave the dying person so as not to appear complicit in the VAD.

The Vatican statement and that of the Catholic Leader Newspaper is devoid of empathy for the dying person. They refuse to help the truly vulnerable dying patient to be put in control of their suffering – to say they have endured enough.  Of course, suffering can be much more than pain – drowning in your own saliva from MND, fungating tumours, are just two examples. Three Australian Inquiries have all reached the same conclusion – a VAD law is needed.

 It is significant that Quebec, formerly the most Catholic province in Canada, preceded all of Canada with their Medical Aid in Dying. A 2012 Parliament Report found  “After studying the changes in social values, medicine and the law, and in light of our comprehensive review of the issues and the arguments raised by hundreds of witnesses and thousands of comments, we have come to the conclusion that an additional option is needed in the continuum of end-of-life care: euthanasia, in the form of medical aid in dying. “

This led to the passing of the Quebec “Act respecting end-of life care” Bill 52, by 94 votes to 22 on June 5, 2014, to a standing ovation.

A huge majority of Christians would endorse this conclusion of the Quebec Inquiry.

We need to be aware of the fact that access to VAD is palliative in its own right. Paradoxically, many who are accepted for an assisted death live longer than those who do not request assistance. It removes the toxic fear about how they might die. The Vatican and Catholic Leader would deny the dying that peace of mind. And not only that, by denying the Sacraments to the dying person who even holds a membership to a pro-VAD organisation, it seeks to blackmail into repenting, using their fear of eternal damnation.

We are all aware that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it was the Samaritan, who as a race were despised by the Jews, who stopped to aid the wounded Jewish man, while the priest walked by on the other side of the road. Jesus, a Jew, used this story to illustrate the lack of compassion by his fellow Jews.  Yet somehow the Vatican have twisted this story to make it appear that because Jesus suffered death on the cross, the dying person now should somehow take comfort in that suffering and gain hope from it as they die with their own suffering.

Clearly the Church has lost any moral authority it may have once possessed. The continued opposition by the hierarchy and religious others to the choice of voluntary assisted dying for a person terminally or incurably ill with unbearable suffering, particularly for a person who is not of the Catholic faith, is a classic example of obstructionism and lack of empathy.

Our group, in its small way, represents the 75% of Christians in Australia, including 3 out of 4 Catholics, who, according to Vote Compass 2019, support Voluntary Assisted Dying as an end of life choice, showing true empathy, love and compassion for a dying person who is suffering needlessly.

VAD is an issue in our society whose time has come – The vast majority of Australians trust that  their MPs, will conclude that Christian love is best served by putting the patient in control of their suffering, and giving them choice in dying, under the provisions of Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation.

Those with religious or other beliefs against VAD simply do not go through the rigorous process of requesting it.

Ian Wood

Spokesperson and Co-founder, Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Assisted Dying

Read more. Rev Cardy from NZ expresses his religious support for VAD
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/euthanasia-referendum-how-religious-kiwis-are-deciding-which-way-to-vote-on-the-end-of-life-choice-bill.html?

Read more: Rev Kilgour of NZ – Sermon in support of an assisted death after his nephew in Canada used MAiD. https://christiansforvad.org.au/rev-craig-kilgour-new-zealand-sermon-my-nephew-had-an-assisted-death-in-canada-it-was-compassionate-it-was-humane-it-was-right-and-good/#more-560

Read more: Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of Capetown and his support for VAD as an end of life choice. https://christiansforvad.org.au/archbishop-desmond-tutu-gives-his-blessing-to-the-voluntary-assisted-dying-campaign-in-australia/#more-371

Address to TAS Parliament MLC’s by Ian Wood.  26.8.2020

Thank you for this opportunity to address you as Spokesperson for Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Assisted Dying.

My background – My name is Ian Wood. I was a community Pharmacist in Port Pirie, South Australia, for 40 years, so that involved caring for people. My wife and I raised two children, and we enjoyed community involvement in heritage conservation, classical music, and entertaining at aged care facilities with music and singing

I had long supported assisted dying choice but became public in support in 2009 when Rev Trevor Bensch, a retired Minister and hospital chaplain at the church I attended, decided that Christians who supported VAD needed a voice and we formed our group.

We are – Christians who believe that, as a demonstration of love and compassion, those with a terminal or hopeless illness should have the option of a pain-free, peaceful and dignified death with legal voluntary assisted dying.

We currently have about 1250 member/supporters  Many members have died waiting for legislation.

Our vision essentially is –“Do unto others”, and “Love thy neighbour”, which leads to ‘How is love best served?’

Conservative Christians in the past opposed the abolition of slavery, opposed pain relief in childbirth for women, and opposed women becoming doctors and lawyers – we find a woman who passed her law exams in USA was told by a judge she could not practice as the “Law of the Creator” was she should be a wife and mother.  Conservative Christians opposed voting and property rights for women. In every case this Christian opposition to social change has been proved wrong!

Conservative Christians such as the ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) opposed marriage equality and discussion on sexual orientation.  We believe those Christians were wrong!

With regards to sexual orientation, we find that to its eternal shame many of the church hierarchy indulged in a massive coverup of paedophile clergy, in many cases leading to the tragic suicide of the innocent victims, in a cruel irony with the church opposition to VAD. Clearly those Christians were very wrong!

So how is love best served for a person who is about to die, but has suffering they find unbearable?

The ACL and most church hierarchy say hold that person’s hand, say that we are with you, but let the suffering continue. Where is their Christian empathy, we might well ask? Curiously, the Christian Lobby do not appear to give religious reasons for opposing VAD.

The ACL recent approach in Tasmania has included Headlines such as – 49 new clauses in the Bill, have an Inquiry, and scaremongering about the alleged ‘vulnerable’.  None of which address helping the truly vulnerable dying patient to be put in control of their suffering – to say they have endured enough.  Of course, suffering can be much more than pain – drowning in your own saliva from MND, fungating tumours, are just two examples. Three Australian Inquiries have all reached the same conclusion – a VAD law is needed. Another Inquiry is not needed.  The mass of overwhelming evidence in support of VAD has already been collected. The most recent YouGov Poll in QLD had 79% Anglican, 68% Catholic and 83% Uniting /Presbyterian in support.

Argument against VAD when our group started was often based on Thou Shalt not Kill, which more accurately translated should be ‘not kill with malice’ ie murder. Yet not far away from this instruction the Bible also states that children who answer back their parents or overeat should be stoned, and specifies death for many other offences such a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath, and for a person having sex with their mother-in-law. Now, religious people opposing VAD tend NOT to mention religion!

However, there are exceptions.  Prior to the last Western Australia Election we asked candidates their views on VAD and the vast majority of those who responded indicated support.  However, these 2 quotes from the Australian Christians Party candidates are informative to us all!

Rosemary F C Steineck, Candidate for South Perth, wrote “….a woman who was dying of a terminal …highly invasive spinal form of bone cancer …producing increasing agony which could not be palliated by normal pain relief. She was two months in dying. Why could not the doctor, with her permission, sever her spinal cord above the site of the cancer? Yes, she would have become a paraplegic. Yes, she would have been confined to a wheelchair. But would that really have mattered so much at the end of her life? She could have died pain-free.”                                                                                                         

And another candidate…“I once had an uncle who rebelled against the Lord all his life.  On his death bed he refused to acknowledge his sin and his Savior.  God gave him time to repent but he refused.   If he had been administered an assisted death the time he had to repent would have been so much shorter.  Euthanasia stops God’s work in all our lives at the time we choose rather than the time he chooses. 

I would say how utterly obscene!  I leave you to draw your conclusions.

Mr Brohier is a barrister and lawyer, representing the ACL. From a legal perspective I would ask him to consider the unanimous decision by 9 judges of The Supreme Court of Canada, in February 2015:

“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 gave the Canadian Parliament 12 months to introduce legislation to comply with the Supreme Court guidelines.

I submit the same right to fundamental justice applies to all Australians.

Why should a conservative Christian lobby group assume the right to try to determine how every Tasmanian should die?

Compare the Brohier and ACL approach with that of Greg Barnes, Hobart Human Rights lawyer, who says in The Mercury, 17.Aug: “Assisted Dying Laws ensure we are all treated with humanity” and “We are forced to linger and suffer because of the minority”.

It is significant that Quebec, formerly the most Catholic province in Canada, preceded all of Canada with their Medical Aid in Dying. A 2012 Parliament Report found  “After studying the changes in social values, medicine and the law, and in light of our comprehensive review of the issues and the arguments raised by hundreds of witnesses and thousands of comments, we have come to the conclusion that an additional option is needed in the continuum of end-of-life care: euthanasia, inthe form of medical aid in dying. “

This led to the passing of the Quebec “Act respecting end-of life care” Bill 52, by 94 votes to 22 on June 5, 2014, to a standing ovation.

We need to be aware of the fact that access to VAD is palliative in its own right. Paradoxically, many who are accepted for an assisted death live longer than those who do not request assistance. It removes the toxic fear about how they might die.

Please study the folder you will receive from me, which sets out other Christian support, and includes comment on the important value of PC and its limitations. Please view the video message from Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in support of VAD.

I must comment on the Live&Die Well leaflet handed out at Catholic Parishes in Tasmania last Sunday.  Parishioners were asked to write to all MPs, always use the word ‘suicide’ and NOT to use religious arguments as a reason for opposing VAD choice! This is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Here we have a church that obviously has learnt nothing from the bloodshed and suffering of the Inquisition and the Crusades, in a last ditch attempt to retain and impose their medieval and outdated views about suffering on us all

This is an issue in our society whose time has come – The vast majority of Tasmanians trust that you, their  MPs,  will conclude that Christian love is best served by putting the patient in control of their suffering, under the provisions of this Bill

Those with religious or other beliefs against VAD simply do not go through the rigorous process of requesting it.

To conclude – Catholic theologian, Prof. Hans Kung, states: “As a Christian and a theologian I am convinced that the all-merciful God, who has given men and women freedom and responsibility for their lives, has also left to dying people the responsibility for making a conscientious decision about the manner and time of their deaths. This is a responsibility which neither the state nor the church, neither a theologian nor a doctor, can take away”

 I am happy to try to answer any questions.

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Dear reader.  If you like this post and support Voluntary Assisted Dying choice then please Sign Up as a member, if you are not already a member of our group.  Membership is free.  If you prefer not to Sign Up, but just add your name in support of Christian choice for VAD, you are very welcome.  Please just click on this link – it takes less that 30 seconds! https://christiansforvad.org.au/add-your-name/

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