12:00a.m. 18th July 2008

| By Bill Hoffman

Dying With Dignity Victorian president Neil Francis with one of the latest books to be released by Rodney Syme on euthanasia. He was guest speaker at a meeting held at the Maroochydore CWA hall on the dying with dignity bill set to come before the Victorian parliament. Photo: Robyne Cuerel/177078

A campaign to encourage all Australian states to legalise euthanasia would be rolled out across the nation if a bill to be debated in the Victorian upper house later this month is successful.

More than 50 people met in Maroochydore CWA hall this week to hear Dying with Dignity Victoria president Neil Francis explain the strategy developed to get the bill to a vote.

Voluntary Euthanasia Society Queensland’s Sunshine Coast branch has already approached independent Member for Nicklin Peter Wellington for support to extend legislation he successfully introduced to this state’s parliament to protect doctors from prosecution for adverse effects of medication prescribed for pain relief.

Mr Francis said 80% of Australians supported the right of people with incurable or terminal illnesses to end their lives with dignity.

The Victorian legislative charter will go before that state’s upper house on July 28. If successful it would then be put to the lower house to consider.

Any failure by that house to put the bill to a vote would trigger a media campaign featuring a bevy of high-profile Victorians demanding parliament reflect the clear will of the community.

Marshall Perron, the former Northern Territory chief minister who successfully introduced the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act before it was overturned by the Howard government, attended this week’s meeting.

He said despite the overwhelming support of the community the power of the church over politicians made them reluctant to act.

A concerted campaign has already been launched in Victoria by Labor’s Catholic right to defeat the Dying with Dignity legislative charter.

Mr Francis said it had been constructed with four simple tenets – that a person has an incurable or terminal illness; that no-one be compelled to participate or not participate and that doctors and nurses should not be forced to assist; that there be no criminal offence in giving advice in good faith and that it incorporates safeguards to ensure that the sufferer’s intention is absolutely clear.

He said the bill was conservative and that, while it allowed a person to make a request for medication to end their life, that medication must be consumed as a clear demonstration of will, rather than injected.

Doctors who receive a request can act on it or tell the patient their may be other doctors willing to assist. They do not have to refer the patient to a particular doctor.

There is a cooling off period of 48 hours from when a request is made and patients are to be given full advice on their diagnosis and prognosis, and the palliative care options that are available to ensure a fully informed decision is made.

After the patient has signed a second time a prescription is given.

Mr Francis said the experience in Oregon in the United States which has a similar bill was that one third of those prescribed the medication did not take it.

He said its existence acted as a powerful form of palliative care.

The patient, often living in extreme circumstance, had the weight of uncertainty about what level of suffering and incapacity came next in their illness lifted from their shoulders.

Mr Francis, who has a background in medical research, information technology, management, marketing and education, said dying was not a happy issue to discuss, but he said we will all die at some time and it is a necessary topic to talk about.

The Victorian private member’s bill is being sponsored in the lower house (Legislative Assembly) by the Liberal member for Bass, Ken Smith, and in the upper house (Legislative Council) by the Greens member for Western Metropolitan Colleen Hartland.

Anyone seeking further information should contact Voluntary Euthanasia Society Queensland Sunshine Coast branch president Alastair Henderson on 5437 3627.