I’ve just finished listening to a podcast episode on, Mama Mia (Mia Freedman) “No Filter with Mia Freedman” that chatted openly, and quite candidly, with Andrew Denton about euthanasia. If you would like to listen to it yourself, it is titled “Andrew Denton “On Leaving Life Gently”, dated 31 October 2016.
As a person that was with and watched death happen right before my eyes at the tender age of 16 (or 17), I have an array of thoughts, ideas and concerns regarding euthanasia.
And in an age where terms like “prevention is better than cure” get thrown around like confetti on a wedding day.
“As I walked into the front doors of the Redcliffe Hospital heading to the palliative care unit, my eyes caught the detail of the clock. It was 2.40pm. I had just walked to Maccas’ to get something to eat whilst mum and nanna, stayed with my grandad.
Grandad was in the process of dying, and he didn’t die with any sort of dignity. The bowel cancer had taken hold aggressively and now it was just a matter of time. 2.40pm was just that time.
I walked into the ward and noticed the alarm light on for his room and the place was pretty chaotic. I could hear the whales of my mother desperately asking for someone to “do something”. Nanna just seemed to sit there calmly, and once it was all over, she just wanted to go home.
My eyes met the fabulous male nurse that had been looking after Grandad that day, his face filled with compassion. I can’t really remember my reaction. I think that deep down I already knew. Mum was saying how she just watched the colour drain out of him, from the tips of his fingers to the rest of his body. I also must say that in his final days his hair had turned completely white. A far cry from the dark hair we’d only ever known.”
It sounds like a peaceful end, but it was far from it.
The previous days were horrific. He was in a ward will other people that knew they were only leaving in a body bag. They also seemed to have some sort of “code of knowing” that once you entered the private end room, that was it. Death “cloacked” that place, and each time you left it was troubling trying to “shake it off”. I cannot imagine what it was like having to stay there. I got the chance to “leave” and shake the death off.
Grandad had been hallucinating and chatted with “friends” only he could see at the end of the hospital bed. He would almost stop breathing each time the death rattle took hold, but a phlemy cough would ensue and he’d be back no matter how fleeting the moments were. As I type this, I’m unknowingly struggling to catch a breath for him. The truth was, grandad was drowning in the fluid on his lungs, and there wasn’t anything, anyone could of done to bring back any form of comfort or life. We were forced to watch death at its most brutal, and the scars still remain, for all of us.
In Mia’s interview with Andrew, he tells of the pain and struggle that would take the life of his father. And whilst increasing morphine seemed the only option, it was evident the patients’ suffering was still there for all to see.
And it was this that prompted him to search for options that were actually “comfortable”. It is here that I point out that I’m not “for or against” assisted dying, voluntary euthanasia, involuntary euthanasia, non voluntary euthanasia, bla, bla, bla. But it does get me thinking. Thinking about having to watch a loved one suffer, beyond any account of the word, is terrifying.
It has also been documented that psychiatric pain, can be that of the severest cancer, and I believe that. As a psychiatric patient myself, I think I get to have an opinion on it. And yes it’s SHIT!
Psych patients however are “condemned to live” and suicide is often painted as cowardly and selfish.
I ask you to ponder this though. What about the elderly people in this country that take, yes take, their own lives to end their suffering? The people that are living in nursing homes and feel nothing but a burden on society? Yes these people exist, and at least, one elderly person with a terminal illness, takes, there, own, life EVERY WEEK!
They don’t want to be that pain in the ass, family feels they have to visit out of duty. Worse still, the elderly person that has no family, nothing? Nursing homes are costly and bring about a truck load of family pressure.
In November 2017 legalisation to allow assisted suicide passed the Parliament of Victoria but will not come into effect until mid 2019.
I would also like to state that, during my research on the topic, there are so many “hoops” a person has to jump through before euthanasia is even considered, and several medical professionals have to “sign off” so to speak.
As it stands now, a person can elect not to receive any treatment for a terminal illness and can also elect to have their life support turned off. Ironic hey?
But, those that have helped someone die, are charged with murder. I wonder if this is why there is a rise in murder, suicides? Just putting it out there! Assisting someone to die but not wanting to spend the rest of their life rotting away in jail. Just sayin…?!?!
Some things in life aren’t just black, or white. I also believe in a God that created a world of colour and saw “it was good”!
I recall reading a book in my early 20’s about Christian’s using birth control and sterilization in order to prevent further pregnancies. All this book taught me, was to feel guilty and ashamed that I had happily (hysterically happy, laugh so much you cry happy) sent my hubby off to get “the snip” coz I was NOT going through another pregnancy again, and if he wanted sex, that was his only option. (I will point out that my body pretty much packed it in during both of my pregnancies. Not just a bit of spewing here and there, a LOT of spewing 24/7, kidney problems…… hospital admissions, the list could go on and on).
Yes the church does say that a human life begins when the women’s egg is fertalized by a male sperm. And yes, I believe that. I have a strong Christian faith.
This, I believe, is where the lines become blurred. The “right to life” or the “right to choose”. That is the question. A question not easily answered no matter “your stance in society”.
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