Euthanasia;

Euthanasia.

I want everybody to take a moment, and be a little self-centred. Just think about yourself.
Think about who you are. What you believe in. Think about why you’re glad you’re alive.
That’s easy.
Now I want all of you to picture what it would take for you to wish you were dead.
Quadriplegia?
Blindness?
Deafness?
Inability to move or speak?
The knowledge that it was only a matter of time before a terminal illness took over your life?
It sounds pretty awful doesn’t it? To feel so terrible, to be in so much pain – that you don’t see the point in drawing another breath.
I wish I could say this is something no one would ever have to feel. That nobody in the world would ever be in so much physical pain that they would make a willing decision to die.
I also wish I could tell you that if someone did make this choice, knowing the full consequences, that their decision would be respected.

There is an 89-year-old woman from Nowra who has a medical history of hyper tension, diverticulitis, ulcers, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and heart disease.
Her body has been battered by illness.
She recently experienced a hip problem, but any surgical intervention to replace it has a 10 to 25% chance of inducing another heart attack.
Her parents, her sister, her husband, her best friends – they’re all dead.
She is lonely.
She has been in unimaginable amounts of pain for over a decade.
So she makes a request to the doctors.
She asks that they do not perform CPR, should she die on the operating table. She asks that if something goes wrong and she cannot use her mouth to eat, that she is not fed through tubes or a drip. Her last request is for palliative care. This means she does not want more medication that will only prolong her painful life. She doesn’t want to fight anymore. All she asks for is pain relief.
She asks for this, because she feels she is too old to continue living like this. She feels too tired and too sick. And she has been for too long.
Her requests aren’t unreasonable. At 89 years of age, she is weak – the medication will hurt her more than it will help her. She cannot see the point in living the rest of her days in a high care facility, surrounded by dying people until she herself succumbs. The pain is unnecessary.
Still, the doctors refuse her this! They will not operate unless they are permitted to revive her! They deny her a basic request – more than that, they deny her a basic right.

Article five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that;
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Refusing a dying person who desperately asks for euthanasia totally refutes this.
Taking away someone’s right to die in peace is degrading. It is cruel.
If you had a pet with a terminal illness, the humane thing is to put them down.
We are humans! And we have lost that right.
It goes against the moral laws we have lived by and abided by for decades – by making euthanasia illegal.

Euthanasia comes from the Greek phrase “eu thanatos” meaning “good death”.
And that’s what euthanasia essentially is.
It’s the chance to die free of pain, with a final dignity.
It’s a beautiful gift, to a dying person.

Yet here Australia is, denying old, hurt and terminally ill people the right to die in peace.
How can we be so without compassion, that we accept this?
We, the nation famed for its individuality and rebellion, have accepted this pathetic and ludicrous law.

There are three forms of euthanasia.
Passive euthanasia is also known as palliative care. It’s when all life-prolonging medicines that cause the patient harm are stopped, and only pain relief is administered.
Non-active euthanasia is when a family member, or the patient themselves turns off their life support.
Active euthanasia is when a patient takes a lethal substance, or the doctor administers it to them under supervision.

Active euthanasia is a rarely confronted issue in our country. While we will happily discuss and witness sex and violence in society, we are no longer comfortable discussing, let alone witnessing death.
And that’s the way the politicians and doctors want it to stay.
There is only one reason for this – and that is fear.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is utterly pathetic.

Undeniably, for a doctor to witness a patient go into seizure and do nothing – would be horrific. To administer a lethal injection to a patient could be life altering.
It would go against all moral beliefs not to help.
But it would not be impossible.
What we have to consider, is whether the moral discomfort of one human being, is enough to control how and when we die.

Bertrand Russel, famed British philosopher and socialist quoted;
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear, is the beginning of wisdom.

By legalising euthanasia and conquering this fear that has unfortunately turned doctors into the cruel dictators of life and death, we could learn. It would cause us to confront our morality and our beliefs. Dying people would have a beautiful option available to them. They could choose to pass on, and be free of pain instead of having to fight through their days in agony.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is something for each of us, which we could not contemplate living with, or perhaps living without. Whether it was a terminal illness, or an inability to move – something’s seem unimaginable. And when it comes down to it, regardless of the legislation and the discomfort some people show in confronting the topic, you would want to choose whether you lived in pain or died in peace. And no one, has the right to deny you that.