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Nicholas Shehadie (39)
In the article below, Kate Caro says 80% of her friends support voluntary euthanasia. I was surprised it was that high and thought I'd put it to G&GR but people are, obviously, welcome to discuss it as well.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/i-want-to-go-my-own-way-20111112-1nctj.html#ixzz1dVatYZg3
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/i-want-to-go-my-own-way-20111112-1nctj.html#ixzz1dVatYZg3
I want to go my own way
David Sygall
November 13, 2011
JANE CARO'S 80-year-old mother has plenty to live for: a happy marriage, a busy social calendar and six granddaughters. But the author and media commentator knows her mother is ''absolutely determined'' to end her life when she can no longer take care of herself.
Kate Caro will not allow herself to suffer unnecessary pain or indignity, or be ''zonked out'' on drugs as the end draws near. It's a position Jane strongly supports.
''My mother's been a feminist all her life,'' Jane says. ''When she was young, people patronised her just for being a woman. She was patronised for having a common Lancashire accent. Now, the idea of young people telling her what to do at the end of her life is too much to bear.''
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For 60 years, Kate has been an advocate for voluntary euthanasia because of the misery her grandmother, Charlotte Jones, suffered with Alzheimer's disease. She remembers the indignity her grandmother endured and the effect it had on her mother, Eva.
''It ruined my mother's life for four years and was certainly not rewarding for my grandmother,'' Kate says.
''I made up my mind then that I didn't want that to happen to me. I've always felt that I wanted to make sure I had a dignified end.''
On Tuesday, Jane will speak at a forum titled, A Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill for NSW. Other speakers will include the former director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, the former Northern Territory chief minister Marshall Perron and the Greens NSW MLC Cate Faehrmann, who intends to introduce a bill next year to the NSW Parliament on assisted dying.
The forum will add to a debate Jane believes is about human rights, yet is clouded by misinformation and a lack of political will.
''The arguments I hear against it are religious and there are a lot of people with strong religious convictions in Parliament,'' Jane says.
''Another argument I've heard is this idea that, if you start here, who knows where it could lead?
''But I'd rather deal with someone who's in terrible distress now, than worry about hypotheticals.
''None of the arguments I'm hearing match up with the picture I have in my head of someone in desperate misery asking for the right to end that. Too many of us leave this life with a bit too much morphine in our system.''
Jane emphasises the word ''voluntary'' in her support, a word she feels opponents often conveniently omit.
''It's a complex debate, yet a lot of people see it as black and white,'' she says. ''They say, 'No, it's a bad thing and must be banned.' But life's more complicated than that.''
Kate has no plans to sign off just yet. But she fears that without legislation, paradoxically, her life might end sooner than necessary.
''I will be forced to do it early because I can't rely on anyone else to help for fear they'd be punished,'' she says. ''I can't leave a will that asks that my life be ended and I can't have people around at the time because they could be in trouble. It means I will possibly have a lonely and miserable end, which is not necessary.''
She believes the topic is increasingly relevant because of an ageing population and technology that can prolong life at questionable physical and emotional cost. Among her friends, she says, more than 80 per cent support voluntary euthanasia.
''In my grandmother's time nobody talked about it. But in those days it wasn't so easy to keep people alive - pneumonia was known as 'the old man's friend'. But it was a big issue for me because I'd watched this awful decay of my grandmother.
''I'd like to be able to choose to end the pain or indignity in my own time. None of us is in a hurry … But we want to know that, when the time comes, we can decide.''
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