October 2017

The Age 9 October 2017
Family First Comment: A great article – from a medical professional (not an ACT MP!) who knows the truth
“A request to die is uncommon, and is often driven by poorly controlled pain or nausea, as well as fear, loss of function and hopelessness. Usually when pain and other symptoms are under control, good nursing care is on hand, and psychological support has been provided, patients no longer want their death to be hastened. For family members watching a loved one die, the experience can be agonising. However, with appropriate involvement of palliative care, the preparation and education of family members about the normal processes of dying (such as irregular breathing and fluctuating consciousness), and with the administration of pain relief, there is minimal physical suffering.
Most patients with incurable cancer battle to the end. They exhaust all evidence-based active treatment options and clinical trials before being told that supportive care measures are now best.
A request to die is uncommon, and is often driven by poorly controlled pain or nausea, as well as fear, loss of function and hopelessness. Usually when pain and other symptoms are under control, good nursing care is on hand, and psychological support has been provided, patients no longer want their death to be hastened.
For family members watching a loved one die, the experience can be agonising. However, with appropriate involvement of palliative care, the preparation and education of family members about the normal processes of dying (such as irregular breathing and fluctuating consciousness), and with the administration of pain relief, there is minimal physical suffering.
When a patient seeks assisted dying, it is often when they are first told they have a limited life expectancy and before they are truly unwell. They are so distressed by such difficult news that they anticipate what is to come and can be consumed with fear and an urge to regain control. They may respond by seeking assisted dying at a time of their choosing. In overseas jurisdictions where this is legal around 80 per cent of those who access it have cancer.
Under the assisted suicide model proposed for Victoria, no psychiatric assessment or specialist palliative care assessment of intending patients are required. There is no need to involve the patient’s treating doctors as two new doctors with no mandated end-of-life expertise assess and authorise lethal medicine without any follow-up care.
Informing family members is optional. The entire process can be completed and drugs taken within 10 days – little time for change of mind about an irreversible act. Everyone is presumed to have decision-making capacity unless they obviously don’t. Determination of a patient’s life expectancy involves an educated guess by doctors and the confidence intervals can be wide.
READ MORE: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/i-wont-intentionally-help-my-patients-to-end-their-lives-20171009-gywz7j.html?platform=hootsuite

Washington Post 24 October 2017
Family First Comment: What the NZ media won’t tell you…..
“…none of the 27 states where such measures were introduced this year passed them into law…. Federal lawmakers, too, are pushing back against the controversial idea. A spending bill passed by the House last month would block the District’s assisted suicide law, which went into effect in February. Eleven House members – including six Democrats — have introduced a resolution condemning the practice. “It undermines a key safeguard that protects our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, people with disabilities and people experiencing psychiatric diagnoses,” the resolution says. “Americans deserve better.”
New Zealand deserves better also
www.rejectassistedsuicide.nz
Three years ago, Brittany Maynard’s viral video launched the issue of medically assisted suicide into the national spotlight. But while advocates have notched a few wins since then, they’ve also run up against some strong, bipartisan resistance.
Two states — California and Colorado — have made it legal for doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients since Maynard, diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, publicized her decision to end her life. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in six states, including Vermont, Oregon, Washington and Montana, as well as the District.
Yet none of the 27 states where such measures were introduced this year passed them into law, according to tracking done by Compassion and Choices, a group that backs assisted suicide. The bills were either quashed in committee or passed one legislative chamber but not the other. That was the case even in states run by Democrats, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and Hawaii.
New York’s highest court upheld the state’s ban on assisted death in September, ruling unanimously that the terminally ill patients who brought the case don’t have a constitutional right to obtain life-ending drugs from a doctor.
Federal lawmakers, too, are pushing back against the controversial idea. A spending bill passed by the House last month would block the District’s assisted suicide law, which went into effect in February. Eleven House members – including six Democrats — have introduced a resolution condemning the practice.
“It undermines a key safeguard that protects our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, people with disabilities and people experiencing psychiatric diagnoses,” the resolution says. “Americans deserve better.”
Doctors’ groups remain overwhelmingly opposed to assisted suicide. Although the California Medical Association switched its stance from opposing to neutral in 2015, other state medical associations remain opposed. So does the American Medical Association, which considers it to be “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer” and poses “serious societal risks.”
A top concern about legalizing assisted suicide is that it could put financial pressure on patients to choose that option instead of treatment, if their insurer covers life-ending medication but not life-extending therapies. Another is that it could be chosen by patients just as they’re most susceptible to depression while they’re fighting aggressive illnesses.
READ MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2017/10/24/the-health-202-legalizing-assisted-suicide-has-stalled-at-every-level/59ee109330fb045cba000973/?utm_term=.81323a137fe2

Stuff co.nz 24 October 2017
Family First Comment: Don’t get too excited. The last time Winston Peters asked MPs to give referendum to the people on a contentious issue (allowing a referendum on same-sex marriage) he lost 33 – 85.
Politicians don’t like sharing the power.
#democracy?
The issue of whether to legalise voluntary euthanasia looks increasingly likely to go to a public vote after details of the Labour-NZ First coalition agreement were revealed.
Contained in the agreement made public on Tuesday was a commitment to hold a conscience vote in Parliament when it came time to decide whether MPs or the general public should determine the fate of ACT leader David Seymour’s End of Life Choice bill.
Seymour’s bill, which gives people with a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition the option of requesting assisted dying, was drawn from the members’ ballot in June.
NZ First has since put forward a Supplementary Order Paper that provides for a referendum on the issue.
When MPs eventually meet to decide whether there should be a referendum, they will now be able to vote individually, rather than along party lines.
Ken Orr, spokesman for anti-euthanasia group Right to Life, said the issue was too complex to be put to a public vote, and could lead to a “slippery slope” of assisted dying policies.
“We don’t think it’s a matter that should be decided by individuals in the community,” he said.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/euthanasia-debate/98192372/labournz-first-coalition-deal-increases-odds-of-voluntary-euthanasia-referendum

No Euthanasia.org 11 October 2017
From all around Australia, 383 health professional have signed a statement rejecting assisted suicide and euthanasia, reaffirming the role of doctors, nurses and allied health as saving lives and providing real care and support for those who are suffering.
Read their statement below:
We endorse the views of the World Medical Association that physician assisted suicide and euthanasia are unethical, even if made legal. We endorse the Australian Medical Association position that “doctors should not be involved in interventions that have as their primary intention the ending of a person’s life.”
We also endorse the World Health Organisation definition of Palliative Care, which has been re-affirmed by the Australia & New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine, that Palliative Care aims to deliver impeccable holistic and person centred care without the aim of foreshortening life.
We are committed to the concept of death with dignity and comfort, including the provision of effective pain relief and excellence in Palliative Care.
We uphold the right of a patient to decline treatment.
We know that the provision of pain relief, even if it may unintentionally hasten death of the patient, is ethical and legal. Equally the withdrawal or withholding of futile treatment in favour of Palliative Care is also ethical and legal.
We believe that crossing the line to intentionally assist a person to suicide would fundamentally weaken the doctor-patient relationship, which is based on trust and respect. The power of the clinician/patient relationship cannot be over-estimated.
We are especially concerned with protecting vulnerable people who can feel they have become a burden to others, and are committed to supporting those who find their own life situations a heavy burden. We believe such laws would undermine the public perception of the dignity and value of human life in all its different stages and conditions. Government focus should be on the compassionate and equitable provision of Social Services, Health Care and Palliative Care.
Doctors and Healthcare Professionals are not necessary for the legalisation or practice of assisted suicide. Their involvement is being sought only to provide a cloak of medical legitimacy. Leave doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to focus on saving lives and providing real care and support for those who are suffering.
READ MORE: http://www.noeuthanasia.org.au/health_professionals_say_no

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.