Thirteen Days to Go...

As part of preparing my submission on Physician Assisted Dying, I have spoken to quite a few people. (Not too many around here, I guess. I am in a residential village of some 350 people, some of whom might find any discussion a little sensitive....)

However, those I have talked to are almost unanimously enthusiastic about some relaxation of our present laws around assisted suicide in particular situations. When you get to our age, you are only too aware of the distressing nature of the final passage of life for a few people. And you probably have an enhanced sense of compassion for others who are going through what you may have to experience yourself some day. So many of us, who have no wish to end our lives right now, would like to have some kind of choice should our situation become unbearable and our pain unrelievable.

The disappointing thing is that hardly anyone I have spoken to intended to make a submission and offer their views. About a dozen asked to be associated with my submission and their names have gone forward. A small number of others have told me that have made submissions. But most seem to be leaving it to everyone else.

Even more disappointing is that the minority of New Zealanders who are really against any change in the law seem to be much better organised than those who have stuck their heads up above the parapet and called for change. On the Committee's website, you can see a lot of submissions that are as simple as "I am against any change in the laws about dying".

While I don't mind if others put up "I am in favour of assisted dying", neither is really a submission. Statements of this kind are really just opinions and the opinion polls have already declared that the majority of us want some change.

I hope that these last two weeks will see an increase in thoughtful, considered offerings, including examples from personal experience, so that the Committee will get a sense of the depth of thinking of the country rather than just a counting of heads "for" and "against". This is not a time for shouting loudly or for rallying mere numbers to the cause. It's a time for doing some deep recollection of our own experiences and some sound thinking around our understanding of the mystery that is life and the inevitability that is dying.

And then we need to pass our thoughts on to the Committee. 

Here's the simple procedure that Parliament uses.
Guidance on how to make a submission is here.

Argument weak? Shout lies more loudly!

Ken Orr, of the NZ Right to Life group, yesterday issued a new media release that I find deeply offensive.

He claims that those of us who support anything called Physician Assisted Dying or Voluntary Euthanasia are in fact proposing that suicide pills be issued to all 70 year olds. He has obviously not read the suggested Bill.

Part of my submission to the Committee on this issue has to do with encouraging them to concentrate on the proposal, not on twisted, perverted, imagined outcomes.

My predecessor at the Dunedin Methodist Mission, in the 1950s had regular "Wayside Pulpit" posters outside the Mission.  One that was still remembered by a member of my staff in the 1970s, was "Mud Slung is Ground Lost"...

Let's have a debate by all means. But, please, let's stick to the issues.

Matt Vickers, husband of Lecretia Seales, has just loaded a very moving video appeal onto Facebook.  I am not a Facebook kind of person, but I have viewed the short piece and have written again to the people who took a look at my draft submission a few days ago.

This is what I've just said in this letter:

With my PSA doubling time over the last ten months being 3.8 months, this issue is becoming a very personal thing for me. It’s no longer just a matter of something I see as being important for everyone else in a mature society. I could well be painfully affected by Parliamentary failure of nerve and the lamentable lack of positive support for change. I encourage you to take some time to write something of your own thoughts or put your name to someone else’s submission. This is not a time for hanging back and figuring it will all work out OK in the end. This process does not work like that.  A full explanation of the procedure for making a submission is set out here:  http://lecretia.org/you-can-help/  

Matt's video can be seen here: do take time to check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/lecretiaschoice/videos/vb.1633927736827211/1726232860930031/?type=2&theater 

Where's it gone?

I've just popped onto the Parliamentary Health Committee's website to view my submission which I sent in last week. Lo and behold, the published list is only complete up to 9th Dec.

With only six weeks until submissions close, it doesn't look good that the office is running a couple of weeks behind in getting them into the public domain.

Furthermore, a simple request I made in connection with the submissions process remains unanswered.

My Submission

Some months ago, I wrote here -

Members of Parliament, hear me: I have terminal prostate cancer.... I believe it is a human right for me choose to die a dignified, planned death when I feel the time is right. Make it legal!

Well, after a lot of work, my submission on Physician Assisted Dying has gone off to the Parliamentary Health Committee. I am supporting legislation to permit choice of some form of assisted dying in New Zealand. Having been active in pastoral care of people in the last stages of their life many times I have had some experience of some very harrowing and undignified deaths, I have a little first-hand knowledge of the issue.

However, the intensity of my feeling arises as much out of the possibility of having such a bad death myself. Of course, everyone with prostate cancer is told “But you probably won’t die of it”. See here for my half-humorous commentary on that theory. But, at my age, and with my PSA velocity, I need to be aware of the prospect of a somewhat unpleasant death.

So I have produced a substantial submission. There’s not much new ground in my argument. I think that most of it has already been said by other people. But I have tried to set out what I have come to feel about the negative personal and theological implications of deaths that have been punishing and cruel. In my own case, I feel I should not have to suffer when palliative care is not able to take the pain from me. What some sensitive medical people are now calling “ultimate palliation” should be available to me to bring about the end of an intolerable existence, should that occur. Such action must be at my request, and in the context of proper precautions and reviews. But I need to have the choice. 

No palliation that does not reach out to this extent satisfies my understanding of the compassion of Jesus. To stop short of properly assisted death when untreatable pain has reduced living to mere existence is to disrespect one of the central tenets of modern medicine. It's found on the wall of every hospital these days: the wishes and needs of the patient must be taken into account in all treatment. 

I submit that it's time we followed that principle to its logical conclusion. 

But the Parliamentary Committee on Health is receiving a large number of submissions from those who disagree with my position. Some offer the most bizarre arguments, based on assumptions that are not part of any responsibly drawn up proposal. The Committee needs to hear from more of the silent majority who appear to support change in the law. Just a simple letter with your name and address will do. If you can include a personal experience of a bad death, that would add weight to your contribution. But just getting something on paper will strengthen this vital cause.