Atheism Central for Secondary Schools

An Exemplary Tale Cruelly Delayed Death A friend aged 86 had to die a cruel death by not eating or drinking as the only presently lawful way (in Australia) of voluntarily ending his life.

He had been a widower for some 20 years, living on his own in a city suburb. He had a loving relationship with his 50 year-old son and three teenage grandchildren and had many friends. When 7 years old he contracted polio which left him with a paralysed right arm after some 12 months in hospital. He surmounted this disability and had a successful life, gaining an economics degree and becoming a sales manager of a major corporation at his retirement.

Life though had become increasingly difficult for him in recent years. He had a successful operation for a bowel cancer but had become weakened resulting in him having frequent falls. This weakness was diagnosed some two months ago as a cancer affecting his bone-marrow (Non-Hodgkin's Lymphona) for which he underwent chemotherapy.

To ensure a ready response in any personal emergency he arranged for an alarm system which he wore to alert his son .

On the Saturday week before Christmas he had a fall from which he was able to right himself but on the Sunday he had another fall which left him on the floor of his kitchen. After some hours prostrate he managed to operate his alarm at midnight to summon his son. The son arrived to find his father in a serious condition and called an ambulance.

The ambulance took him to a nearby public hospital where he was diagnosed with acute pneumonia - the chemotheraphy had weakened his immune system - and rushed into their Intensive Care ward. After some days my friend told the doctors he did not wish to continue to live and the doctors told him they could withdraw the life support system. However his son, with his strong emotional attachment, persuaded his father to not ask for this withdrawal.

After some 5 days my friend had largely recovered from the pneumonia and was transferred to the Continuing Care ward. I visited him there with my wife and he told us he had decided that he wished no longer to live, stating that he had had a good life and there was now no quality of life for him. He asked that I take on the Power of Attorney (Medical Treatment) rather than his son whom he felt would have too strong an emotional link to him to carry out his wishes. He also asked me to contact the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to get advice. I contacted a counsellor early the next morning who advised me the only legal way for my friend to end his life was state to the hospital that he did not want any further medical treatment and did not want to eat or (particularly) drink for the future. The counsellor said he would post me the Enduring Power of Attorney (Medical Treatment) and an Advance Directive form prepared by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to put down on paper a person’s medical directives.

I then went with my wife to the hospital and after discussing with my friend what I had been advised I was both surprised and pleased to see the counsellor arrive at the ward. He had come to deliver the two above documents to me without delay and he also then talked to my friend in our presence to confirm that he was of a sound mind and clearly wanted his life to be ended as no longer having the necessary quality. I then arranged for my friend to sign both documents and was pleased to have the hospital doctor witness the signing. The doctor then arranged for these two documents to be photocopied for the hospital’s information.

The son was present at the VE counsellor's discussion with his father. Subsequently I talked the situation over with the son who agreed to his father’s decision to end his life. What was important now was to make his father as comfortable as possible.

Then followed the cruel part of my friend's final state - nine days of starvation and dehydration. The hospital initially wanted to send my friend to a rehabilitation centre, hoping that he would change his decision of wanting an end to his life. An alternative was to send him to a hospice for palliative care but this would present some difficulty because my friend had no short-term terminal illness.

Later the hospital doctor advised that he had consulted the hospital management who had received legal advice that if my friend contracted a medical condition from the dehydration then the hospital would legally have to medically provide sub-cutaneous hydration. I then received advice from the VE counsellor that my friend could refuse such medical treatment; if necessary my friend, or myself if present, could remove the needle providing the medical hydration.

I contacted the cancer specialist who had been treating my friend for the lymphoma. The specialist stated this cancer was a long-term complaint such that my friend would have a year or two further to live. He was prepared to transfer my friend to a private hospital (my friend had full private medical insurance) but he said this hospital like other hospitals would have the same policy of medical hydration. He advised the only other way was to transfer my friend back to his home.

I looked into this but it would be almost impossible to have the same level of nursing care currently being provided at the hospital and there would be the need to have a sympathetic local general practitioner to oversee the situation.

What I and my wife and his son agreed was that the best way was to keep my friend as comfortable as possible which was to keep him at the hospital where the nursing and medical attention was first class. The hospital kindly transferred him from a two patient room to a single one where there was much less distraction. Over the next days my friend had at most a spoonful of custard, half a chocolate which he regurgitated (some kind but unknowing friend had left a box) and some sips of water and half a cup of tea. My friend reported to me and my wife that he was feeling comfortable but would like it to be all over.

For the final three days when my friend was getting very weak the hospital agreed to give him morphia - a small dose of 2.5gm every 4 hours which made him doze off most of the time. The doctor on the second last day said he was being given the sedative Diazapan.

On the final morning I visited him as usual to find him particularly weak. On returning to the hospital at 4pm in the afternoon I was informed that my friend had died ten minutes earlier.

I am advised that the much better way to end one’s life is to take an appropriate dose of barbiturate. I am told many doctors, pharmacists and veterinarians with access to this drug use it to voluntarily end their lives. The general public has presently no such access. Let us hope that the law in this country is changed before long to allow this drug to be available to allow a person to humanely end a life no longer considered worth prolonging.

James Gerrand.