Dr Rodney Syme, president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria has commented on the Victorian Supreme Court ruling on 29^th May 2003 in the case known only as 'BWV''. This refers to a woman suffering from a rare and incurable dementia who has been kept alive by a feeding tube inserted in her stomach. For the past three years she has had no intellectual or emotional capacity, and has been unable to move, or to control her bowel and bladder.

She had previously told her family she did not want to ever live this way, but requests to have the feeding tube removed had been refused as it was unclear whether treatment constituted 'palliation' which could not be refused, or 'medication' which could.

The court's ruling that tube feeding is a medical and not palliative procedure allows Victoria's Public Advocate (who has been appointed her legal guardian) and her family to decide whether to remove the tube. Right to Life Australia and the Catholic Church argued against the decision, reasoning that it amounted to 'euthanasia and homicide'.

Dr Syme argues that her situation fits the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria's official definition of 'hopeless illness'. She is not unconscious and probably not totally insensate. She is not terminally ill, but has a 'hopeless illness', one that is incurable and causing intolerable and unrelieved suffering. He maintains that delivery of a lethal dose of sedative via her tube would allow her to depart peacefully and with more dignity than that possible with the accepted process, whereby death occurs over a period of weeks. Dr Syme argues that euthanasia is a palliative act and, for many people, the optimal choice of palliation.

He claims 'we can blame our politicians for their inaction, but perhaps the public is at fault for not demanding action.'