The documentary Fade to Black (1.5 hours) is centred around the personal story of Peter Short, the charismatic CEO of a major Australian company. Peter is diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer and learns that he has only months to live. After hearing about Melbourne-based physician, Dr Rodney Syme – who has...
[caption id="attachment_10799" align="alignright" width="150"] Robin and Barbara Collins on their wedding day, 50 years before Robin's death.[/caption] On 27 February, 2014, Amanda Collins' father shot himself in the backyard of the family home, whilst her mother was in the kitchen. Robin Collins' body lay on a patch...
Today three judges in the UK High Court ruled against Noel Conway's application to enable doctors to help him to end his own life. Noel was too weak to attend the court in person for the hearing or for today's decision, but said "As I approach...
"As a clinician, I firmly believe that people have the right to choose how they live, which includes having choices about how they die...
[caption id="attachment_10756" align="alignright" width="285"] Nia Sims with Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy and the VAD bill.[/caption] Nia Sims, 43, has been living with a severe form of the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma since she was 23. Nia was initially told it was likely she would die within...
Scott Barraco of New York, featured in the following short video to advocate for assisted dying, after his experience with his girlfriend, Cathy Quinn, who died from tongue cancer in June 2014. A physician-assisted dying bill, which would allow terminally ill people to die with dignity, is...
Diagnosed at 59 with stage four Sezary syndrome, a rare form of cancer, Dr McPhee underwent several rounds of treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, and at one point suffered multiple organ failure. Half of all patients die within five years of diagnosis of Sezary...
As a nurse of 23 years and paramedic of 19 years, Jenny Moncur said she encounters about half a dozen cases each year where people with a terminal illness take their own lives. "Often it is lonely, painful, done violently and sometimes not very successfully,...
"My grandfather, an OB-GYN, stated his support for the legality of medical aid in dying as he was slowly dying from cancer. I remember a conversation in which he marveled that our society had no problem giving “aid in birth” by providing medication for pain...
On 20 September, the NSW Opposition Leader, Luke Foley, tweeted the following "Personally, I will vote against. I oppose the state sanctioning the taking of human life. Opposed to capital punishment & euthanasia". Apparently, Foley's comment was retweeted by several senior Catholic figures, including the Bishop...