Telehealth consultations continue to be illegal.
Contact your incoming Federal MPs and ask them
to push for a change to restrictions on Telehealth for
VAD which continue to disadvantage people in
remote rural areas and those unable to travel to
appointments. The AMA has also asked the
Government to act on this issue. Lack of Medicare
benefits for VAD also disadvantages poorer
patients, but this is at last starting to be addressed.
Go Gentle Australia has recently released a paper
about the burning issue of Dementia and VAD that it
commissioned Dr Kylie Ladd to research. GGA
Dementia Paper. Go to their website
www.gogentleaustralia.org.au if the above link
doesn’t work.

Awareness – Doctors in Victoria and South Australia
are still not allowed to mention VAD to patients, but
a recent survey in Queensland has shown that many
people are not aware that VAD is now a legal option.
In conjunction with U3A Southern Highlands, DWD
NSW and a local Death Doula, I was pleased to give
a short talk about our group. The vital importance of
preparing an Advance Care Directive (ACD) and
nominating an Enduring Guardian was also
mentioned. Maybe you are involved in a group
which could host a guest speaker from the DWD
organisation in your state.

Go Gentle Australia organised a conference of all
the DWD Organisations in Australia and New
Zealand (VADANZ) in Brisbane late October, which
was well attended.

The President of DWD Victoria, Jane Morris
announced at that conference that DWDV
awarded me the Rodney Syme Medal for 2024.
This Medal recognises distinguished effort in
pursuit of the Dying with Dignity cause. I was very
honoured to receive this award which recognises our
group’s significant input to the VAD campaign.
We continue to regularly receive requests for
information via our website.

Overseas.
The Isle of Man was the first jurisdiction in the UK to
pass an Assisted Dying Bill in late March, and it has
been forwarded for Royal Assent. There was an
historic win in the House of Commons at the Second
Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
in November 2024. Their Committee stage has just
completed, during which they studied the Australian
and New Zealand VAD models. It is now due to go
back to the Commons for debate. There has been
the predictable opposition by religious groups.
Debate is continuing in Scotland and Jersey.

MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) in Canada
continues to provide a painfree and peaceful
compassionate end of life choice and Quebec has
recently allowed access to MAiD by people suffering
from Dementia via an Advance Request. This is
creating controversy, but highlights this vitally
important unresolved issue.
Countries currently allowing Assisted Dying:
Australia (excluding the Northern Territory), Austria,
Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal,
Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, USA
(California, Colorado, the District of Columbia,
Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, New Zealand, Oregon,
Vermont, and Washington. Montana’s Court has
ruled that Assisted Dying is permissable, but the
State has not legislated for it.
The constitutional courts of Colombia, Ecuador and
Italy have legalised Assisted Dying, but their
governments have not yet legislated or regulated
the practice.

Donations: Donations are gratefully received and
can still be made by direct deposit to Christians for
VE – BSB: 105003 A/C: 119890940.

Sadly, many Church hierarchies continue to be vocal
in their opposition. Because of this continued
opposition and the need to have the laws passed in
the Northern Territory, it is hoped that you will
continue to be a member of our group. Please
contact me if you have any questions.
Best wishes,

Ian

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

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

Dear Mr Foley

Re NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 

I respectfully urge you, regardless of your position opposing voluntary assisted dying choice to –

– Please arrange to meet with Annie Gabrielides and her family face to face. Annie is dying from Motor Neurone Disease and as a Christian I urge you to look her in the eyes and say why you believe she should die, still with an active mind, but most likely by choking and drowning in her own saliva. Please phone Shayne Higson DWDnsw 0428 326 358 asap to arrange this meeting.

Annie Gabrielides

Video https://dwdnsw.org.au/support-annies-right-to-choose/

– Please compare your approach to people dying like Annie, to that of your fellow Labor MP, Trish Doyle, as Annie lives in her Blue Mountains Electorate.

Short video clip with Trish and Annie – https://www.facebook.com/Change.orgAustralia/videos/1744560298917350/

– Please read the NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 in its entirety.

– Please read the Presentation Folder, sent by me to your Auburn Office.

– Please study in depth the Final Report of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Panel on Voluntary Assisted Dying. This must be one of the most comprehensive documents I have seen, and contains 66 Recommendations for the implementation of a limited form of Assisted Dying Choice, and perhaps equally important, the rationale behind the need for these recommendations.

https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/publications/researchandreports/ministerial-advisory-panel-on-voluntary-assisted-dying-final-report

– Please consider your alternative Christian compassionate option for people facing death with extreme futile suffering like Annie – Please abstain from the vote on the Assisted Dying Bill 2017.

Prior to going to bed last Friday night, 22.9.2017, I watched the new Annie Gabrielides video at DWDnsw https://dwdnsw.org.au/support-annies-right-to-choose/ and I also read your tweets opposing Voluntary Assisted Dying,

I woke during the night with the following conversation going through my mind. I kid you not! The following is as best how I remembered it in the morning. 

Obviously this is NOT a transcript of an actual dialogue.

Foley: “Great to meet you Annie, and you too, Paul, and I see you have your children with you. Hi Mikey, Chris and Eleni. Look Annie, I am really sorry that you have this lousy Motor Neurone Disease, and that you want the choice to be back in some sort of control as you lose your voice and use of your muscles, and entire body, but you must understand that in my view all life is sacred.”

Foley: “As I tweeted, I oppose the state sanctioning the taking of human life. We have already gone too far in saying suicide is no longer a sin!  And we do already permit/sanction the turning off of life support, but that is passive and just letting nature take its course. Both state and Catholic Church also allow terminal sedation, so palliative care could put you into a coma until you starve to death, as long as the doctor says he is just easing the suffering and not trying to shorten it. Furthermore, you can still stop eating and you will die slowly. I am told it is not all that painful – might be a bit tough on Paul, Mikey, Chris and Eleni, but that is still not a valid reason for me allowing a doctor to prescribe Nembutal for you. After all it is MY conscience at stake here.”

Annie: “Have you read the Victorian Expert Panel Report of over 300 pages, setting out in great detail how the Government there can safely implement Voluntary Assisted Dying?”

Foley: “No, I rely on the snippets of information fed to me by my PR guy from that Catholic ethicist Margaret Somerville. She says if you have enough love you won’t have a wish to die and that if would be the end of society as we know it to have VAD. Anyway, that is a Victorian Report so not applicable to NSW, and the Book I prefer to refer to on these issues is the Bible.”

Annie: “But the authors of the Report start with Prof Owler, who is from NSW and a former President of the AMA, and include respected palliative care specialists Emeritus Professor Ian Maddox and Dr Roger Hunt from South Australia, and a prominent lawyer and a Disability Rights expert.”

Foley: “Well in my view they are recommending the killing of their patients and as I said the Bible tells me all life is sacred. No matter what the circumstances.”

Annie: “So, was Pope Leo XIII wrong when he stated heretics that spoke against the Catholic Church should be killed? So, was the Church in error when they burned Giordano Bruno at the stake for heresy? But it was presumably OK to drown Christians in the time of Zwingli because they did not believe in adult baptism?     I suppose there is precedent for drowning sinners when God drowned every person on earth except for Noah and his family. They taught me the cute part about the animals going in two by two at Sunday School, but never said anything about the tragedy of everyone else being deliberately drowned, even including the poor guys after they finished building Noah’s boat.”

Foley: “Well what the Pope says is infallible, so Leo and others must think some exceptions are OK, and we don’t advocate burning heretics or witches these days, or the stoning of children who overeat or answer back their parents, but that does not make it right for me to allow you to obtain a prescription for Nembutal.”

Annie: “Speaking of the drowning of Christians, that is probably the way I will die, choking on my own saliva. My mind is still active even though my body is shutting down, and it is horrible to be thinking all the time this is how I will die.”

Foley: “Annie, as I said I really feel for you, knowing that you will die by drowning in your saliva, but it is still a sort of natural death, and as I keep repeating, the fact that even though you say having the Nembutal on hand would give you comfort, even if you did not use it, – it is still not a valid reason for me allowing you to have this comfort.  Surely you can understand that we politicians are to have a conscience vote on this issue, and on this issue I will vote according to MY conscience and it is not my job to represent the conscience of my Electorate.”

Annie: “I did read in a submission by Coroner Olle to the Victorian Inquiry into End of Life Choices that dozens of terminal people every year kill themselves by hanging, jumping off a building, drinking weedkiller, slashing their wrists to bleed to death and so on. It must be terrible for family or the police or whoever, to have to deal with this, and terrible for these poor terminal people to have to die alone.”

Foley: “Well, I am really sorry for them too, and I can only quote Somerville again, and the authentic Catholic view, and say if they had more love and better palliative care it is clear in my mind this would not need to happen.”

Annie: “It is a pity you could not quote Catholic theologian Hans Kung. In his book, ‘A Dignified Death’, Kung said, ‘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 or the church, neither a theologian or a doctor, can take away.’  This conversation, using my voice recorded on our laptop, is exhausting me and I am afraid I will have to stop.”

Foley: “Well, Kung lost his job at a Catholic University for making that statement and disagreeing with church doctrine so he only got what he deserved.  Great to have met you, Annie and family, and God Bless!”

Luke, please meet with Annie and family soon and have a real conversation!

Ian Wood                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         National co-ordinator and spokesperson                                                                                                                                                           Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia                                                                                                                                       Villa 1, Hampton Mews, 4 Wills Place, Mittagong NSW 2575

Website: www.Christiansforve.org.au

26.9.2017