END-OF-LIFE QUANDARY

Ensure better care, not a means to end

I AGAIN raise my deep concerns in relation to voluntary assisted dying (VAD).

I continue to oppose it given there is a strong push locally here in Townsville and other parts of Queensland to encourage the state government to move forward now instead of waiting for the Law Reform Commission to report back.

In my considered view, having engaged with many sick and terminally ill people in my role as a priest for nearly 28 years, including more recent experiences with my own parents, VAD is not the answer.

The truth is that the request to “die” is often the result of poorly controlled pain or nausea.

It is up to government to ensure that more effective palliative care intervention becomes a reality for individuals in this situation. Governments should not be in the business of creating a state that sanctions medically assisted suicide.

Usually, when pain and other symptoms are under control, with good nursing care and psychological and family support, patients do not want their life to be prematurely ended.

Yes, the experience of watching a loved one dying is horrendous, but telling a patient that they are dying can be received in such a way that fear overwhelms them and they can respond irrationally and jump at their first thought of ending things immediately.

They may respond by seeking assisted dying rather than opting for a carefully planned response of palliative care.

If assisted dying is legislated and becomes the norm in our society it will, over time, condition people with incurable cancers to opt to take this path.

In my view, this is a tragedy and totally unnecessary.

MOST REV TIMOTHY J. HARRIS, Catholic Bishop of Townsville.