Last night, ABC’s 7.30 aired stories on two contentious issues that I support – marriage equality and voluntary assisted dying. It is the later I’ll address today, and starts at the 8-minute mark.
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/7-30/NC1705H141S00
There were a couple of issues – first of all, Ms. Sales repeatedly refers to voluntary assisted suicide as “euthanasia;” the legislation soon to be introduced to parliament does not, except in exceptional circumstances, require or even allow physicians to administer the medication.
Second, the statistic of less than half of doctors supporting it comes from the AMA, which represents around 30% of Australian doctors, not even a majority of them. That said, I strongly suspect approval rates of assisted dying are very much lower in this group than in the general population.
I agree with Dr. Kaminsky that her “profession very much places an emphasis on ‘death equals failure,’ because our whole edict is to cure, to save life” – I’ve witnessed first-hand the distressing effects on patients, family members, nurses, and doctors themselves when they can’t accept the inevitability of death. It’s often said that doctors cure and nurses care, which I think does a disservice to to both our professions, and the impact of this inaccurate, divisive binary is worse for my medical colleagues. Doctors care, too, and they have an important role to play at the end of life, as is evident by the specialties of gerontology, general practice, and palliative care.
The problem is that Dr. Kaminsky is not distinguishing here between people who could be cured but aren’t being treated, and people who are inexorably, imminently, irreversibly approaching death – there is no saving available for them, only prolonging. And this ethos places the doctor at the centre of the situation, not the patient.
I wholly agree with Dr. Gold, with whom I’ve previously worked, that deliberately causing someone’s death would feel very uncomfortable. Even providing the means for a patient to do so themselves, even when they themselves have assessed that the person is choosing this, is competent, is dying, and is suffering, I do not imagine it will be easy. That in itself is one of the strongest, least slippery safeguards we have – doctors, like nurses, did not enter their profession to bring death, even to willing, eligible, pleading people; they study and work to make peoples’ lives better. It’s what ensures that applicants in Oregon are more often directed to other measures, including better palliative care interventions, than are prescribed medication to help them die.
Justine Martin, the multiply-unfortunate woman with MS, CLL, and SLL, articulates the desires of many people who have seen loved ones die badly: “I don’t want to end my life at the moment, but I want to know that if and when the time comes, that I will definitely have a choice.”
I agree with Michelle when she says that assisted dying can only be a real choice if excellent, expert palliative care is available. In addition to the Andrews’ government’s palliative care plan announced in 2016, palliative care services (from funding and resources to education and access) improve when assisted dying legislation is introduced, for that very reason – patients are better and more comprehensively assessed, and alternatives to assisted dying explored, including additional refersals to specialists and services.
And she’s right that coercion presents a genuine risk of influencing decision-making – which is why, as Dr. Carr points out, this legislation provides more safeguards for the vulnerable that they currently have. Assessing applicants, ensuring their requests are genuine, consistent, and uncoerced, will be a major part of the coordinator and consultant roles for doctors under the legislation, and of the legislation doctors will be mandated to undertake before playing any part in the process.
I fear that Dr. Kaminsky has not reviewed the advisory panel’s final report, because the concerns she raises are comprehensively addressed, from up-skilling doctors (a contributing factor in the 18-month period between the Bill passing both houses, and the Act going into effect), to how the medication is to be stored and who is responsible for returning it to the dispensing pharmacist if unused. There is more danger of unused narcotics “falling into the hands of a child” than a bitter liquid in a locked metal box, particularly as MS Contin and OxyContin are small and brightly coloured, Fentanyl patches can look like stickers or bandaids, and morphine mixture is sweet.
This is not an easy or straightforward issue. It shouldn’t be – it’s too nuanced, too important, and too open to misuse and error if not rigorously and robustly constructed. The Bill proposed in Victoria is tighter than any anywhere else in the world, incorporating the safeguards used in North America and Europe, in addition to measures unique to this legislation.
23/8/17 09:40
Edited to add: in a brief exchange on Twitter, Leah Kaminsky reported that she’d been quoted out of context, and has written a book about the realities of facing death; I have a copy on my teetering To Be Read pile – it looks particularly light-hearted and reassuring, given the subject matter, so I was a little surprised.
The ABC has a second item about the positions of the same three Victorian doctors, for those who are interested in a little more on this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-21/doctors-divided-over-voluntary-assisted-dying-legislation/8827204
There are still battles to be fought 
I acknowlede that Dr Kaminsky has said she was “quoted out of context” but find it difficult to imagine what context could alter the meaning of her words regarding her concerns that she is not up-skilling/trained, and how the medication will be safely managed, and the risk of the medication being accessed by children. This last suggestion is particularly unlikely- safe management of medications in the home is well established practice. I lean to the conclusion that Dr Kaminsky is unaware of how the proposed framework thoroughly addresses these issues and provides solutions and safeguards and feel concerned that the public may have been mislead by these comments. Nia