#5 I Choose Not to Suffer

So much was said during Victoria’s parliamentary debate about the people who would choose voluntary assisted dying, were it to be made legal.

That they could not possibly know their own minds.

“I do not believe that an individual who is facing such enormous pressure and stress is capable of making a decision to end their own life.”

Nat Suleyman, MP

That the burden of possessing life-ending medication would be too much for them.

“If I was in that situation, I would probably think about it every hour — ‘Will I take it now? Will I take it tomorrow? Will I take it after I’ve watched my favourite TV show?”

Luke O’Sullivan, MLC

That they would be pushed into ending their lives by hard-hearted relatives.

“Sometimes the relatives might … be wanting to encourage the person to take their medicine — take their poison, I should say.”

Neil Angus, MP

Or that they should never even need to make such a choice, because palliative care could alleviate all their pain and suffering.

“Advances in palliative care medicine have been prodigious, to the point where well-managed cases under best practice palliative care can eliminate physical pain and discomfort.”

Robert Clark, MP

Why don’t we just let these people speak for themselves?

Meet Ron Poole, Fiona McClure, and Peter Jones, three Victorians from very different backgrounds in the final stages of a terminal illness and facing potentially brutal deaths.