SAVES is not affiliated with Exit International / Dr Philip Nitschke and opposes the public availability of a 'peaceful pill'.

       Wot - No Demons?

In a letter in the November issue, "There Were No Demons", Harry Green claimed that we were wrong to attribute the passage of the Andrews Bill to the supposedly undemocratic machinations of our opponents. We should instead acknowledge our own failure to demonstrate sufficient popular support. When only 1,000 out of about 12,000 submissions to the Senate enquiry opposed the Bill, we were, according to Harry, simply outclassed. An editorial footnote wondered if we were not so much outclassed as outgunned.

As Harry said, there is nothing wrong in a democratic society with groups organising themselves to influence political outcomes. But the democratic society in which this process necessarily reflects the will of the people does not exist. In such a contest, the loudest voice often drowns out the others. All that was demonstrated over the Andrews Bill was that we lack the financial and organisational capacity to marshall letter-writers; our opponents do not.

No doubt there were politicians foolish enough to be influenced by this, and others glad to have it as an excuse, but it was not democracy in action, quite the reverse. Personally, I doubt if it affected the outcome.

Our strength lies in having reason and compassion on our side, and maintaining a position supported by a great majority of the public and many health professionals. But if our success depends on the number of people we can get to make a submission to a select committee, the demons will always outgun us.

Not long ago, a good friend of mine, I'll call him Arthur, died of cancer in the hospice section of one of our public hospitals. He didn't die in pain and his wife assured me that his death was peaceful.

I was horrified to hear, though, of an incident that occurred on the day before he died. He had become constipated and had been given suppositories. Needing to open his bowels, he asked his daughter to ask the nurse to bring a bed pan. The nurse told her to tell her father to let go his bowels into the bed. They would clean him up later. (Apparently this was thought more appropriate than struggling to get him onto a bed pan in his fragile state.)

Now the Arthur I knew was a very proud man. I am sure he would have been shocked and humiliated at such a suggestion. Once again we find a dying person stripped of dignity. Surely this can't be normal practice in hospice care?

Our hospices do truly wonderful work but sometimes we hear stories that cause disquiet. Nirmala Pusari, Lecturer at the School of Nursing at Flinders University comments:

In any nursing situation, whether in acute care or in hospice, maintaining the patient's dignity is of prime importance to all of concerned. I was shocked, therefore, to hear of this experience. This is NOT normal practice.

The nurse should have consulted/discussed the proposal with the patient and responded to his wishes in spite of his fragile state. Since she/he didn't do this, the family should have discussed the situation with the nursing staff as soon as they became aware of it.

I know this is not always easy in hospitals, particularly when family members are struggling to come to terms with their impending loss. But there is really no sensible alternative to speaking up when health care falls short of the expected standards.

I hope I have assured the writer that her friend's experience was a very rare lapse in standard nursing care that increasingly stresses the importance of maintaining the dignity of the patient at all times.