In view of this, I contacted each of the Federal Lower House candidates for Whitlam, where I am located in NSW, and the lead Senate candidates for every Party listed for NSW, asking if they would support a VAD law for the Territories, overturning of what is known as the ‘Andrews Bill’ at the time of the Howard Government, that took away the Right of the Territories to enact such a law..

Some of the  responses were very thoughtful and supportive, and yet in so many other cases, I received no reply at all.

Here is a table summarizing the responses >

Regardless of who ends up in Government, I sincerely hope that this Right of the Territories to make their VAD law can be restored.  It is inequitable, discriminatory and inhumane that the ACT and the NT are currently excluded.  We are still hoping that by the date of the Federal Election on May 19, NSW may have become the final state to pass their Voluntary Assisted Dying law.

Thank you for reading this.

Ian Wood, Spokesperson, Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Assisted Dying.   Australia

I responded with the following letter to editor, which has not been published by the Bulletin.

A Christian response to Catholic Bishop Harris “VAD Laws need rethink”, 2.6.2021

Bishop Harris states: VAD “laws will result in more deaths”.  Fact: these patients are already dying – there will not be any more deaths, just less horrific suffering as that life ends.

Fact: While there will always be a place for good palliative care – no amount of money or advancements will ever provide the required level of relief of all suffering.

Harris quotes Paul Keating against VAD Choice!  Fact:  What on earth are Keating’s qualifications to allow him to pontificate on how other Australians should suffer and die?

Harris states: “society will never be the same again”.  I imagine a similar remark was made at the end of the Catholic Inquisition, with the abolition of slavery and when women were allowed to have pain relief during childbirth!  Hopefully we can say the same when there are no longer any paedophile priests?

Fact: A significant majority of Australians have stopped, have thought rationally, and decided that a change in our society is needed to allow the option to choose a Voluntary Assisted Death.

Bishop Harris is welcome to maintain his medieval outlook on dying but how dare he try to impose his views on all other Australians, including a majority of Christians.

Ian Wood                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               National Spokesperson for Christians Supporting Choice for VAD                                                                                                        Mittagong  NSW

Here is the Bishop’s letter that I was responding to ……..

Voluntary Assisted Dying Proposed Legislation
It appears that proponents of voluntary assisted suicide have begun their victory laps. I have been very
vocal in my opposition to VAD laws being embodied into this State and elsewhere. I continue to hold the
strong view that no good whatsoever will come if these laws are passed.
Indeed, society will never be the same again. Here we are still in a COVID-19 global pandemic where
death is all around us and into this context, we have sections of the community cheering on laws that will
result in more deaths.
I thought a civilised society was against suicide and wished to do everything possible to eradicate it. But
no, it seems we wish to offer people the option of taking their precious lives.
We can do better than this race to the bottom. We can create an environment of accompaniment from the
beginning of a terminal illness to the end. Society must not abandon anyone, especially the most
vulnerable.
Palliative care creates an environment conducive to caring and compassionate actions that can lead to
someone dying well. Some of these horror stories of people dying in terrible pain are years old. Palliative
care has advanced in its effectiveness and will do so even more if adequate funding from governments
can be achieved.
People are frightened into supporting voluntary assisted suicide because they are led to believe they have
no other alternative. Proponents of VAD should therefore hang their heads in shame and demand of their
governments a standard of Palliative care that mitigates against a rush to a regime that sanctions death.
Paul Keating is right. Going down this path is a step too far. No one needs to suffer unbearable suffering,
but a concerted effort to ease this suffering with world class palliative care system will at least challenge
the view that VAD is the answer.
Suicide is suicide and it is a tragic consequence of a society that has failed its people. Suicide of any kind
is not necessary because it leaves in its wake a kind of individual and community paralysis that seems to
be placed in the too hard basket. How have we got to this stage? What support structures can we place
around people? Can we do things better? Do people feel they are alone and have to carry the burden by
themselves?
I say to members of parliament and those advocating for voluntary assisted suicide – “STOP and think
again.” Let us have a good long hard look at ourselves before we go to where we have not gone before.
Most Rev Timothy J Harris
Bishop of Townsville
1 June 2021

“It’s a blessing”

The Reverend Marvin Ellison, PhD, a Presbyterian minister and former Willard S. Bass professor of Christian ethics at the Bangor Theological Seminary in Portland, Maine, said his Christian beliefs inform his support for Maine’s law.

“As a Christian theologian, I can state unequivocally that Maine’s Death with Dignity law is a blessing.”

— Reverend Marvin Ellison, PhD

Photo supplied by Rev Ellison.

“It’s a blessing to those at the end of life who are ready to die, but for a variety of reasons are not able to die,” Marvin shared with us. “It’s a blessing to their family and friends, who pray that their loved one will not be forced, against their will, to experience a meaningless and protracted death but rather will have the means, when and if they so wish, to exit more gracefully.“

“It takes spiritual maturity to discern when death is no longer the enemy to resist, but rather has become the friend to welcome,” he added. “I thank God for the gift of our moral freedom to make these very tender, very principled decisions for ourselves. We honor God and each other when we adopt a “hands on” rather than “hands off” response to dying, especially when we act with care, compassion, and respect for one another at our ending no less than at our beginning.”

Please read the full article: https://www.deathwithdignity.org/news/2020/09/the-spirit-of-dirigo/?fbclid=IwAR3GhNHt9h_vtR74W-4-iJVaQh3ZB-VTI9-x6hadKWca4f4bGIssJLv6MY4

“I pray that our Members of Parliament will enact a law to permit us to access this blessing in every state and territory of Australia,” says Ian Wood, Spokesperson and Co-founder of Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Assisted Dying.  If you ‘Like’, ‘Love’ or ‘Care’ for this post, and have not already joined us, please add your name today –  https://christiansforvad.org.au/add-your-name/

I sincerely thank EVERY person involved in getting this legislation passed. It is an achievement of monumental proportions. My hope now is that Queensland and the other states will have the courage and compassion to pass their VAD legislation promptly. In addition, now is also the time to give the right to pass VAD legislation back to the Territories.

I have sent the following email to the Queensland Minister for Health, and intend to also send it on to the Health Ministers and Premiers in SA, NSW and Tasmania, and also their counterparts in Opposition.

Dear Hon Dr Steven Miles

It must be very rare to find a Minister for Health in tears (of compassion) when giving a speech.  WA Minister for Health Roger Cook has done much to restore my faith and trust in the political system and democracy in Australia.  He, and WA Premier Mark McGowan, have actually listened to the wishes of 88% of West Australians about Voluntary Assisted Dying and then acted upon them.

I pray that you, Dr Steven Miles, as Minister for Health in Queensland, will reflect on this over the Christmas break, and early in the new year show the same courage and compassion for people dying in Queensland, by giving them the legal choice of Voluntary Assisted Dying.

WA Minister for Health, Roger Cook, joins Premier McGowan, giving thanks in Parliament for the passing of the VAD Bill, 10.12.2019 – By a very appropriate coincidence, on World Human Rights Day.

https://www.facebook.com/MarkMcGowanMP/videos/2645272722434034/

Sincerely

Ian Wood, on behalf of the Queensland members of of our group, and indeed the vast majority of all Australians.

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.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

UNDERSTANDING END OF LIFE, PALLIATIVE CARE AND A REALISTIC INSIGHT INTO PALLIATIVE CARE              AND END OF LIFE SUFFERING

Beverley Young

(Retired Palliative Care Nurse Specialist –20 years’ experience –Post Graduate Qualifications in Palliative Care)

I completed my Nursing Registration with a Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing) in 1988 from the Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education, Lismore, (now Southern Cross University).  Following this, in early 1992,I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Health Science (Nursing) from Armidale University, while in the Graduate Program at Lismore Base Hospital.  In June 1992 I commenced work as a Registered Nurse in Palliative Care at a dedicated and well-known “Hospice” (for the dying) in Sydney.

In 1995 I completed Post Graduate studies in Advanced Palliative Care at The University of Technology,Sydney.  During my employment at the well-known dedicated “Hospice” facility, I attained my accreditation as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, and was employed there until July 2004.  During this time, I was also seconded to another Hospital in the capacity of Clinical Nurse Specialist to work alongside a Palliative Care Specialist.  Additionally, I served on the Community Palliative Care Team, as a Consultant.  In the last 4 years of my employment I was a Level 11 Palliative Care Supervisor.

Palliative Care:

Palliative Care is delivered in a range of different environments and these include:

•Within a dedicated “Hospice” environment

•Within a general hospital setting where there may be dedicated “palliative care” beds or a “palliative care” section of the hospital

•Within a “Home” environment (e.g. Hospice Services) although the “Home” option is limited due to palliative care resources

Through my observations and experience I wish to state that Palliative Care may not be delivered to the same standard that you find in a “dedicated” Hospice environment. Standards vary because of insufficient training of doctors within a true palliative care setting.

Palliative care aims for excellence at all times but, despite this, the best efforts to achieve this continue to fail a small percentage of cases and people can and do suffer an horrendous end of life experience with many expressing the wish for their suffering “to be over”. There is also, sadly, a monumental “fail” at times, when medical professions choose not to acknowledge a patient’s terminal state, and continue to subject people to invasive procedures.

I have so many experiences to recount. For the purpose of this “post” I will discuss one example of how Palliative Care is not able to help with all suffering at the end stage of life. Similar experiences demonstrate why I advocate for exceptional palliative care –uniform and standardised –regardless of the palliative care environment in which it is delivered.  My experiences also demonstrate why I fully support Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation for those who seek this option to end suffering and die a peaceful death.

A Chinese gentleman, with advanced bowel cancer, came to the Hospice in which I worked, for “respite” care –he was referred to us from a large “general hospital”. The “plan” was “build up his condition in preparation for skin grafts to his buttocks”.  A very unusual site, I thought, at the time, with “pressure sores” being the only thing witnessed in that area.

I arranged a resident doctor and a physio to come and assess the gentleman at the time of admission, to minimise any discomfort through “excess handling”. The gentleman had arrived at our Hospice by ambulance stretcher –the gentleman’s frail wife visibly concerned, beside him. As the ambulance-man wheeled the gentleman passed the desk, the absolutely unmistakeable odour of gangrene filled the air. The physio and I exchanged glances –dreading what we would find when we settled the gentleman into bed.

Once in bed, I gently rolled the gentleman towards me, whilst the physio looked at his bottom. The pure horror on the physio’s face was enough to tell me everything I needed to know. This gentleman’s buttock area was permeated with sinus –countless small tunnels, if you like, out of which faecal matter oozed. Several perimeters had necrosed –meaning tissue in this area was dying. The tissue dies because of the advanced state of the disease–in this gentleman’s case, advanced bowel cancer,and there is nothing that can be done. You cannot regenerate that –it is dead tissue. The fact that this man had been referred for his buttocks to receive a skin graft was truly alarming.

There was no way that the referring individuals from the hospital from which the gentleman came,could NOT have known he was close to dying. He came from a major large hospital in Sydney. He was debilitated. He was skeletal. He was jaundiced. He was “end stage” and his “colour” was indicative of having major liver metastases.

This man’s family were in China. He had not seen his mother or three brothers for nearly 10 years. The plan was for them to come in 6 weeks.

Somehow, I had to convey the urgency to this gentleman’s wife, the urgency to get them here sooner –without saying that her husband was dying. As a Palliative Care Nurse Specialist,we were not allowed to ever discuss a patient’s anticipated life expectancy with the patient –that was always for the doctor.  Quickly picking up on my suggestion that the family might come much sooner, the gentleman’s wife was, quite correctly, distraught.  Never, at any stage, had she ever suspected, nor ever been told of her husband’s true situation.

This gentleman sadly passed away, just short of one week later without the opportunity to see his mother or brothers.

As mentioned, I have experienced first-hand, the horror of many “end of life situations”that could not be alleviated by even the best of palliative care. To suggest that palliative care, even at its best, can prevent extreme suffering in everyone, or negate the need for the option of voluntary assisted dying legislation, (should the individual choose this option),is to be inexperienced in the specialty of palliative care and to not respect the choice of the individual

Belinda Teh starts her walk from Melbourne to Perth in memory of her Mum’s horrific and futile end of life suffering from breast cancer, to raise the profile of Voluntary Assisted Dying and to help convince MP’s of the need for this compassionate choice in Western Australia.  Walk safely Belinda, with best wishes, Ian Wood

Belinda says: “As a devout Catholic and nurse for 39 years – much of her nursing career spent in aged care – my mum could hardly be better informed about the moral and medical considerations at the end of one’s own life.

My beautiful mum Mareia experienced a horrific death which modern medicine and caring specialists could not save her from – and I don’t want her suffering to be in vain. 

I want WA to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws so that no Western Australian with a terminal illness has to die the way my mum did, enduring unspeakable pain and suffering that cannot be palliated in their final weeks, days and hours. 

Mum was a devout Catholic her whole life and took much joy in practising her faith. Equally, the day she asked for assisted dying, she did so without a hint of shame, and to me that means that she had reconciled her religious beliefs with her personal wishes in her own way. I like to say that “she had a chat with the man upstairs, and they figured it out between them.”

I want to send a message of hope to other Western Australians who have had their hearts broken, and a message of urgency to the politicians who are representing us when I leave Melbourne on 28 May, as I plan to trek west on foot, arriving in Perth on 6 August.”

Belinda will be sharing her adventure on Facebook, you can stay updated by liking her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BelindasBraveWalk/

To read more about Belinda and her mum, and to support Go Gentle Australia, go to http://www.belindasbravewalk.org.au/

Photo and story quoted on this website with permission.

https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562019/approved/20190412a.shtml

New Jersey Gov Philip Murphy ……..
GOVERNOR’S STATEMENT UPON SIGNING
ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 1504
(Second Reprint)
Today I am signing the “Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act”, Assembly Bill No. 1504 (Second Reprint), which permits terminally ill, adult patients residing in New Jersey to obtain and self-administer medication to end their lives peacefully and humanely. I commend the bill’s sponsors — particularly Assemblyman Burzichelli, for whom this bill has been an extremely passionate and personal mission since he first introduced it seven years ago — for their tireless efforts to craft legislation that respects the dignity and autonomy of capable individuals to make end-of-life decisions.

The legislation I am signing today is the product of a near-decade long debate among policy makers, religious organizations, experts in the medical community, advocates for persons with disabilities, and patients, among many others. Without question, reasonable and well-meaning individuals can, and very often do, hold different moral views on this topic. Through years of legislative hearings, countless witnesses, many of whom shared deeply personal and heart-wrenching testimony, offered compelling arguments both in favor of and against this legislation.

As a lifelong, practicing Catholic, I acknowledge that I have personally grappled with my position on this issue. My faith has informed and enhanced many of my most deeply held progressive values. Indeed, it has influenced my perspectives on issues involving social justice, social welfare, and even those topics traditionally regarded as strictly economic, such as the minimum wage. On this issue, I am torn between certain principles of my faith and my compassion for those who suffer unnecessary, and often intolerable, pain at the end of their lives.

It is undeniable that there are people with terminal illnesses whose lives are reduced to agony and pain. Some of these individuals may thoughtfully and rationally wish to bring an end to their own suffering but cannot do so because the law prevents it and compels them to suffer, unnecessarily and against their will. I have seen such debilitating suffering firsthand in my own family, and I deeply empathize with all individuals and their families who have struggled with end-of-life medical decisions. As things now stand, it is the law, rather than one’s own moral and personal beliefs, that governs such decisions. That is not as it should be. After careful consideration, internal reflection, and prayer, I have concluded that, while my faith may lead me to a particular decision for myself, as a public official I cannot deny this alternative to those who may reach a different conclusion. I believe this choice is a personal one and, therefore, signing this legislation is the decision that best respects the freedom and humanity of all New Jersey residents.

Date: April 12, 2019
/s/ Philip D. Murphy
Governor

The full interview, with my answers to Scott’s questions, can be found here > https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/01/wood-jacobsen/

I hope readers find the article of interest.

It is encouraging to have international recognition of our group and this Christian stance we are taking to give the additional option of compassionate choice in dying in Australia.

Ian Wood

Spokesperson and National Co-ordinator.

Dr Sandy Buchman, President-elect of the Canadian Medical Association addressed a UK Parliamentary group.  December 11, 2018

“I see assisted dying as one more tool in the service of palliative care’s core mission of alleviating suffering” – Dr Sandy Buchman, Canada.

As a palliative care specialist,  Dr Buchman acknowledged that his personal journey towards accepting assisted dying had spanned over two years.  He stressed that it was his belief high quality palliative care was key to good end of life planning, but that assisted dying did not threaten the provision of such care, but somewhat perversely strengthened the case for ensuring that palliative care was accessible and available.

Closing on a personal example, Dr Buchman explained that whilst he was initially hesitant about the prospect of assisted dying, he ultimately decided that helping patients who wanted to decide when and how they died, was an extension of what he had been doing already: helping to relieve suffering.

Dr Buchman explained that when he first participated in an assisted death, for a professor of medicine suffering from Lewy body dementia, he had been struck by the sense of “illumination”, as though “a weight had been lifted”, when he agreed to discuss the prospect of an assisted death, let alone participate.  He explained that whereas before his patient had explained he felt hopeless, especially after exhausting the options of traditional palliative care, the option of an assisted death enabled the patient’s mood to lift, and allowed him the dignity to die from a peaceful death surrounded by those he loved.  

Ian Wood comments: I frequently read how the option of assisted dying, once the patient has been accepted, is palliative in its own right and a tremendous morale booster for that dying person.

Dr Sandy Buchman, the President-elect of Canada’s Medical Association, who was joined by his Vice-President Dr Jeff Blackmer, discussed the role doctors had played in shaping Canada’s decision to legalise assisted dying in 2016. Professor Sir John Temple, the previous President of the British Medical Association (BMA), spoke about his concerns regarding the representation of doctors views.

“Medical organisations must engage with the debate with evidence and honesty and adopt a position that respects patients and professionals’ choices.” – Professor Sir John Temple

Professor Temple suggested that the BMA’s continuing opposition was “troubling”.  In particular, he stressed that whilst the BMA has a membership 150,000, only 197 doctors were responsible for its official policy of opposition. Setting aside his democratic concerns, Professor Temple condemned the BMA for failing to reflect the views of doctors, as evident from a recent poll in the British Medical Journal (the BMA’s independent paper), which found 55% of doctors supported a change in the law.

Dr Blackmer, a specialist in disability and palliative care, made the astute observation that whilst he can sympathise with the dismay of many disabled groups, evidence from Canada indicates that those who are most vulnerable tend to be excluded from accessing end of life care, rather than pressured into it. Consequently, he suggested that those who are most vulnerable in society, are often most frightened by the prospect of having no choice at all.

Subsequent to their meeting on Tuesday, Dr Buchman and Dr Blackmer also attended a meeting at the Scottish parliament where they told MSPs:  “I’ve learned from clinical experience that sometimes the only way to alleviate a patient’s suffering is to allow them to choose an assisted death.  It’s not an easy decision to become a provider of assistance in dying.  It took the better part of more than two years to sort through my deepest emotions. Every case is difficult – every single case is a challenge.  I never see this as an easy decision.  It’s as difficult as you can make in medicine.  No-one I know takes it lightly.  But I look to medicine to alleviate suffering.  Ultimately I have decided that helping eligible patients who wanted choice over the manner and timing of their death was an intention of what I was doing all along – that is relieving suffering.  This is a choice that I have made personally, this is a matter of conscience which should unequivocally be respected.”

Ian Wood comments further …..

Two of Canada’s top doctors, Dr Sandy Buchman, palliative care specialist and President-elect of the CMA, together with Dr Blackmer, a disability and palliative care specialist, and CMA Vice-president, have made a strong, compelling case to a UK Parliament committee for the benefits of assisted dying choice. I do hope they can also address the QLD Inquiry when it officially starts in Australia, and the NSW Parliament, when the VAD Bill is re-introduced there.

I urge readers to peruse the full article

Parliament hears from top Canadian Doctors, on the experiences of assisted dying abroad