Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) congratulates Victoria on the recent passage of voluntary assisted dying legislation;

(b) encourages all Australian states to follow suit; and

(c) calls upon the Federal Government to respect the wishes of the residents of all Australian territories with regards to dying with dignity.

Hollywood got it right more than 35 years ago when they made a movie, starring Richard Dreyfus, called Whose Life Is It Anyway? More than 35 years ago, the issue of voluntary euthanasia—dying with dignity—was of such interest worldwide that Hollywood made a film about it. That's the one question that its opponents can't answer when the issue of voluntary euthanasia comes up. Whose life is it, anyway? It's mine. Who are you to tell me that I cannot voluntarily end my suffering if my body is racked with pain and relentless terminal illness. If the quality of your existence is so miserable, so painful, so helpless and so hopeless, I believe you are entitled to say, 'Enough is enough,' and end it. That is not a cowardly thing to do. It's a brave thing to do.

The issue of voluntary euthanasia is in the news again today because the Victorian parliament has just passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill. It's the first state in Australia to pass such legislation, although of course it has been attempted many times in many states and there have been a number of attempts to pass federal legislation, which I have long believed is the way Australia should have gone and still should go. And of course it's more than 20 years since the Northern Territory briefly had legalised dying with dignity. I think back to 1997, when that was scuttled by Canberra with a private member's bill from the man I used to call the Brylcreemed Bible Basher, Kevin Andrews, backed by Prime Minister Howard—I don't know why I say 'backed by', because it had Howard's fingerprints all over it—and also the powerful religious lobby groups, like the Lyons Forum and Right to Life. The Andrews spoiler was also backed by the then opposition leader, Kim Beazley, and Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer. It was fast-tracked through this Senate and the Canberra Christians triumphed.

Of course, there was a similar attempt here in the ACT. In fact, the Liberal Democrats have a motion before this chamber to restore those rights in the Northern Territory and the ACT, and I believe that the Greens have plans to again introduce a federal bill. I think that Senator Leyonhjelm will speak to this issue today.

The aim of voluntary euthanasia and the legislation is as simple as it is noble. Let a person pass away with dignity and pride; don't make them flee overseas to a Swiss clinic, or smuggle illegal drugs in from Mexico. Don't make loved ones co-conspirators, facing the risk of murder or manslaughter charges just for lovingly responding to one final plea.

I've long been a supporter of voluntary euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, who has been pilloried by the AMA. He's risked his career, his freedom, his reputation and even his personal safety by campaigning for the ultimate civil right, and that is the right to take your own life. And it is your right. I know I have used before the example of my own mother's death, and I make no apology for that. She was five years younger than I am now when she contracted terminal cancer. After chemotherapy, she developed thrush in her throat and could not swallow food. She existed on melted ice-cream as she slipped into a twilight zone. I watched my mother waste away, and in her final days she looked like a Biafran famine victim. If she had been a dog and an RSPCA inspector had walked into that room where I sat next to her bed, I would have justifiably been charged with cruelty to animals.

My mother was not living; she was existing. A morphine shunt was in her side; it was controlling some of the pain. But I looked at her and it seriously crossed my mind that as a last act of love I should put a pillow over her face and end it, because she wanted to die. Mum had said many times in family discussions that if ever it happened, that if ever it came to that, then she wanted to die. And I feel the same way.

Seven years ago I was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and given 12 months to live if I didn't get a transplant. As the clock ran down to months and then weeks without a life-saving transplant, I told loved ones and close friends that I had made plans to end it if my quality of life deteriorated. I said, 'That's what I'll do, without implicating anybody else, if my quality of life disappears or I start to lose my marbles.'

Now, it wasn't a surprise or news to them. My views on voluntary euthanasia have been pretty public for many years. I said 30 years ago that if I got terminally ill, that's the way I'd go. I once told Herald Sun reporter, Patrick Carlyon:

If my mind started to go, there would be nothing left for me. If I got really sick, I'd kill myself, no doubt about it. I believe in euthanasia, make no bones about it.

I believe a person has the right to die. I believe a person has the right to commit suicide… although I think that is sometimes a coward’s way out that pains and scars bewildered and guilt-ridden loved ones left behind.

When a person is terminally ill, their emaciated bodies shrunken beyond recognition and wracked with pain, they are entitled to say 'whose life is it, anyway?" and make a calculated decision to end it.

The issue of voluntary euthanasia is supported by at least 70 per cent of Australians. But many of our politicians and many religious leaders have inordinate sway in Canberra and in the state capitals. In Melbourne about three years ago an intelligent and dedicated campaigner, Dr Rodney Syme, defiantly served himself up as a test case. He publicly admitted giving Nembutal to terminally-ill journalist Stephen Guest, who took those pills and killed himself two weeks later. Dr Syme has said that he has helped scores of sick people die. He's virtually told the authorities: 'Come and get me. Make me a test case.' But most politicians don't want to know about it.

Syme believes that there is what he calls a 'benign conspiracy' among police, prosecutors, the coroners and governments not to charge doctors who help people end their lives. And I agree with him. Everybody knows it goes on; everybody does. Usually it's the nurses under instruction who do it, but doctors take life-ending actions all the time—and emails from nurses to me have reaffirmed that. What angers me is that hypocrites, like some of the religious zealots who oppose the 'dying with dignity' legislation, will leave it to the doctors to make those decisions for them—because it happens to terminal patients in major Australian hospitals everyday. I bet you it happened today. As the movie title said 35 years ago, whose life is it anyway? Whose indeed.