Dying With Dignity member passes

I missed this story in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday and only came across it via an email from Dying With Dignity pointing it out. Aina (who passed away) was one of the Dying With Dignity members. The video there is supplied by DWD.


 
The story tells of the difficulty dying in today's Australian healthcare system. The email states:

Peter,

Have you seen today's Sydney Morning Herald? There is a very interesting article about the death of one of our DWDnsw members - Aina Ranke.

Aina had suffered from a degenerative and debilitating neuromuscular condition for nearly four years and decided that she was ready to die on Thursday 19th September, as she could not endure the pain and suffering any longer. Sadly, our current laws in Australia do not make it easy for a person to end their own suffering.

She was visited by DWD members the day before she died, this from the SMH article:

Earlier that last afternoon Ms Ranke had made arrangements for two members of Dying with Dignity NSW to visit her in her small flat in Ashtonfield, a suburb of Maitland, in the Hunter region. Psychologist Sarah Edelman and actor and ABC Advisory Council member Gideon Cordover made the trip. Both were upset as they drove away.

"It is an awful thing to die alone," said Dr Edelman. For Mr Cordover, 24, memories came flooding back of his father's death in June 2009. Robert Cordover was a marine biologist who spoke seven languages. He was also stricken by motor neurone disease and ended his life with Nembutal. Mr Cordover was anxious for Ms Ranke.

"The fact that she was alone really kept me awake all night. It really felt unfair, unjust, that somebody who deserves such a good passing at the most vulnerable time of their life should be denied it against her will." Read more

Unfortunately the community nurse turned up early and found her still alive and she was taken to hospital. Dying in hospital isn't as bad as it could be, with doctors generally obeying the wishes of someone near death not to be revived if they have something happen. It's not that way for attempted suicide though as any aid in an attempted suicide is against the law here. 

"He [the doctor] repeatedly said that if they switched off the respirator they would be aiding her suicide and therefore breaking the law," said Dr Edelman. Dr Edelman pointed out that keeping Ms Ranke on life support was inconsistent with her wishes and her Advanced Health Care Directive (AHCD). But the AHCD document was not there and, even if it had been, the staff said it had no legal status. And because she had attempted suicide, the AHCD did not apply. 

 "If a patient has a terminal illness and asks for no intervention during hospitalisation they would respect that request, but they are not obliged to do so in the case of an attempted suicide," said Dr Edelman of the conversation. Read more

She was eventually pronounced brain dead, giving the hospital the legal means to pull the plug. She died 12 hours later. 

There's a NSW parliamentary forum about "The ethics of voluntary assisted dying" on Nov. 4th if anyone is interested attending. Hmmmm, thinking of going myself. Is hosted by Alex Greenwich, gay independent. I didn't know he was a member of Dying with Dignity. I suppose being in the gay world and the HIV that's existed in it over the years, there may well be many HIV+ people thinking about having the right to chose the time of their own death.