18 January 2017
In
Stories
Dr Edelman: They said my dad wouldn’t suffer, but he did
By Dr Sarah Edelman
President of Dying with Dignity NSW
Although he was in one of the best palliative care facilities in Melbourne, dying was a slow, cruel process. Since that time three more bills seeking to legalise assisted dying (in NSW, Tasmania and South Australia) have been rejected by state parliaments. To hear politicians blithely debating euthanasia laws is particularly galling, having experienced the painful end of this process. Our state and federal parliaments comprise a large proportion of MPs with strong religious beliefs, relative to the general population. This affects the way they vote on social policy issues. On many issues, these MP are out of step even with the majority of Australian Christians.
- Click to read SMH Opinion 17/1/17 and readers comments
- Click for PDF of SMH Opinion 17/1/17 – smh-op-ed-SEdelman-170117
- Click for PDF of some of the great letters to the SMH 17-19 Jan – SMH-letters-17-and-190117