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

President’s report July 2004 meeting

Frances Coombe welcomed guests Phillip Beddall and Sandra Kanck, members and visitors to the July meeting. She was pleased to relate that SAVES had recently received a bequest of $3000.00 which was gratefully received, and will be used to further the society’s aims.

The society’s activities are continuing, with regularly scheduled Parliament House steps ‘awareness days’. These are seen to be effective ways of engaging with the public and providing information on the society’s aims.

There continues to be ongoing dialogue with the Australian Medical Association (AMA) to secure a change of policy from a negative stance on voluntary euthanasia to one of neutrality. This would better reflect the known diversity of views held by AMA members.

Frances also advised that the Department of Human Services has reviewed aspects of the Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act in respect of advance directives. There are currently two methods of completing an advance directive in SA, under either the above act or under the Guardianship Act. There are plans to amalgamate these acts but this will take several years. In the meantime brochures, forms and pamphlets relating to advance directives have been updated and more information is provided later in this bulletin.

A request was again made for legally qualified members of SAVES to offer occasional assistance of opinion or advice on relevant matters. General, as well as committee support is urgently needed as the committee is understaffed. Members are advised that future issues of the VE Bulletin may be sent by email if requested. Frances also reminded members that SAVES has a small library of books available to members.

The Dignity in Dying Bill has been rejected in the upper house but is still to be debated in the lower house. It is hoped that a vote will be taken this year to gauge support for the bill. Sandra Kanck has been pleased to receive ‘thank you’ letters from constituents for her support for legislative reform. Members were again reminded to write to their members of parliament to encourage their compassion by voting for the bill.

In the federal arena Democrat Lyn Allison’s bill to repeal the Euthanasia Laws Act, commonly called the Andrews Bill, has been tabled in the Senate and awaits debate. The Euthanasia Laws Act overturned the NT Rights of the Terminally Ill Act and prevents any Australian territory from passing voluntary euthanasia legislation. Unfortunately only a brief period each sitting Thursday is set aside for ‘general business’ and, on average, the Democrats may have bills debated every seventh Thursday. Therefore it does not seem likely that a vote will be taken this year. However Lyn Allison is considering referring the bill to a Senate Committee of Enquiry which would involve a call for public submissions and at least a day of hearings. SAVES has offered support in any way it can.

Electronic Frontiers Australia is a voluntary group working to ensure freedom of information in the electronic media, including the internet. This organisation has advised that submissions made in respect of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Telecommunications Offences and Other Measures) Bill 2004 may have had some impact, as the bill tabled in parliament is considered an improvement on the exposure draft.

Senator Ellison has made a statement to the effect that the bill is not designed to censor or inhibit advocacy or debate on the internet concerning law reform for assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia. The offences in their revised form will relate to counselling or inciting suicide, or promoting or providing information on a particular method of committing suicide.

On the interstate front the Rev Fred Nile will be standing for the Christian Democrats at the federal election, with at least $300,000 in funding for the senate campaign. This will include television advertisements. The Christian Democrats will be seeking to ‘neutralise’ the Greens whose policies include support for voluntary euthanasia.

In Tasmania the release of a major report into palliative care has highlighted that it is under-funded, bringing calls for the government to address the issue. Also in Tasmania John Godfrey, an internationally recognised scientist, recently walked free from a Tasmanian court after having been convicted of assisting the suicide of his 88 year old incapacitated and pain-ridden mother, Elizabeth, in December 2002. The former CSIRO oceanographer was found to have acted solely from love and compassion. Justice Peter Underwood gave Mr Godfrey a suspended jail sentence, stating that the law seemed to discriminate against people who wanted to end their lives, but were physically unable to do so.

This judicial decision is in stark contrast to the case of the twenty one people who sat with Nancy Crick when she chose to end her life. It took two years to be notified that there was insufficient evidence to lay charges. In passing judgment the statement was made that ‘being present when someone takes their life does not in itself constitute an offence’.

However seventy one year old Mr Fred Thompson from NSW has been charged with aiding and abetting a person to commit suicide. He helped his wife, Katerina, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis to end her life.

Frances also advised that in New Zealand Lesley Martin, who was convicted of giving her terminally ill mother an overdose of morphine, asked that her sentence be served by home detention. However the Parole Board has rejected her request, claiming that Ms Martin posed an ‘undue risk’ to the community as she was able to influence the thoughts and actions of others. Her application would only be reconsidered if she acknowledged that she had improperly broken the law and refrained from all public and media activity until her statutory release date. There seems little doubt that Lesley is being ‘called to account’.

Overseas the Bush administration has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a May decision upholding Oregon’s assisted suicide law prohibiting federal charges against doctors who prescribe overdoses of medication. Thirteen of the circuit’s twenty five full-time judges must agree to a rehearing, but these are rarely granted. In May the three-judge panel ruled that Attorney General John Ashcroft could not hold Oregon doctors criminally liable for prescribing overdoses. Judge Richard Tallman stated the appeals court opinion that Ashcroft’s ‘unilateral attempt to regulate medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under the federal law.’ Also in the US, a new organisation is to be formed by unifying Compassion in Dying and End of Life Choices. This is expected to provide a more effective and powerful national voice for compassionate care and choices at the end of life.

The Spanish parliament has rejected a bill to legalise voluntary euthanasia. The Minister of Health claimed that one of the reasons was that society ‘was not focused on the topic’ and debate would be postponed for a year. We await further developments.

Frances then advised the audience that the veteran English broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy has resigned as president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society amid a bitter row over the leadership and direction of Britain’s largest right-to-die organisation. Sir Ludovic, a lifelong supporter of voluntary euthanasia, resigned after the board voted to expel its former chairman Michael Irwin, who admitted helping terminally ill patients to contact Dignitas, the assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.

Dr Irwin has challenged the Crown Prosecutor, and is willing to face a fourteen year jail term in order to test the law on voluntary euthanasia in Britain. He said ‘we have a law against aiding and abetting suicide, and yet people who have travelled with their relatives to Dignitas and helped them to die are not being questioned or prosecuted. I would like to see the law tested on cases where a person is travelling abroad for assisted suicide’.

Frances stated that Dr Irwin has taken a courageous stance, as challenging the law causes tremendous stress, as was seen with the twenty one people who sat with Nancy Crick. Nancy claimed that 'it is these heroes who push the boundaries, raise consciousness and stimulate action’.

Frances told the audience that SAVES has long been seeking dialogue with people who are living with disabilities, especially since she and past president Mary Gallnor faced the protest group ‘Not Dead Yet’ outside the World Federation Conference in Boston in 2000. SAVES recognises that there are concerns and special interests that must be acknowledged and addressed in any voluntary euthanasia legislation. In the Dignity in Dying Bill a disability advocacy group could be one of the eight organisations comprising the monitoring committee. It was therefore appropriate that the speaker for the day was Phillip Beddall, chairperson of Disability Action.