Submission time!

14 Dec
I've at last made a start on my submission and sent a draft to a few friends, many of whom have offered encouraging comments. With a bit more work it should go off today or tomorrow.

As I said a few days ago, it's hard to find anything new to say, especially when people on both sides of the discussion hold their beliefs very firmly. But I guess what's important is the individual and personal nature of a submission and I think mind does that something of that quality about it.

I have asked to present it in person but that may depend on whether or not the Committee is able to hold hearings in Auckland as well as Wellington. 

5 Dec
I've been trying to follow the Voluntary Euthanasia debate while we've been travelling around these last two weeks. One of the very impressive crusades is being conducted by famous Australian broadcaster Andrew Denton in ABC's Earshot series. 

I plan to make a submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health but it's very hard to say anything that hasn't been said before. And there are so many arguments on both sides of the issue. But I made a start on one or two occasions while the G-GS (see 23 Nov) was asleep at Blenheim and a first draft is beginning to shape up.

A difficulty for me in all this is that I keep thinking of more light-hearted ways of expressing my concerns about this very serious topic. For instance, I am not at all sure if the effect of my submission will be strengthened or diminished by an ending like this:

'All through my journey with hormone treatment, friends—becoming aware of my diagnosis—have said, “Dave, you’re looking great.”  They haven’t realised that medication has filled out my face (not to mention other parts of my anatomy!) so of course I look good. I’m not unduly vain, and I may not be as gorgeously cuddly and rounded as my first greatgrandson who arrived this year but I’ve been grateful to “look good”. Recalling the terribly gaunt, emaciated faces of cancer patients in the final stages of long drawn-out deaths, what I ask of you now is that when my death comes, perhaps a little prematurely, people may be able to look at my body and say, “Gee, Dave, you’re looking great”.'