New Zealand: Dying GP's last wish: legalise euthanasia

Description: [of the article from The New Zealand Herald]

This report begins:
An Auckland doctor who has just months to live after being diagnosed with a terminal illness says it's time for euthanasia to be legalised. Dr John Pollock said it was unfair that if he lived in Holland, Belgium or some American states he would have the option of ending his life if his condition deteriorated to a point where he was suffering, but in New Zealand he faces a death he cannot control.

He believes it is time for a law change so people facing death have the comfort of knowing they can control the end. "The law as it stands in my view is cruel. It's outdated, it's cruel, it's unnecessary - it needs to be changed," said the former GP, who has metastatic melanoma.

"I think an individual has the right to choose for himself how his life goes and how it ends. I don't think that it is fair or it is moral for somebody else to suggest that they know better and that they have the right to determine that you may not be helped to die."

The 61-year-old, who retired from the Torbay clinic he was working at after being diagnosed in December, was told about four months ago that he might have six to nine months to live but said it was difficult to know what course his illness would take and when.

Later in the report: Under the current law, some terminally ill patients were left in the "most appallingly wretched states, sometimes akin to those who died of starvation in Nazi concentration camps", Dr Pollock said. "Ironically if we allowed a cat or a dog or a horse to reach such a condition we would be breaking the law and risking a prison sentence."

[There are other related stories in the Links section below.]

Links:

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  • http://tinyurl.com/255ftec

  • http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10660173

    Also see:

  • New Zealand: Euthanasia already happening, says dying doctor [stuff.co.nz]
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3943215/Euthanasia-already-happening-says-dying-doctor

    This report begins with:
    A doctor who is dying of cancer says many of his colleagues already practice euthanasia and it should be legalised. Auckland GP Dr John Pollock, 61, who has metastatic melanoma, said he personally knows many doctors who have taken steps to hasten a death. A 2003 survey of doctors showed a third had taken measures that would lead to a quicker death, he said.

    Dignity New Zealand founder Lesley Martin, a former nurse who was jailed for helping her mother die, said most people in the medical industry knew of cases where things "quickly happened''. "There's a coded language (doctors speak),'' she said.

    New Zealand Medical Association chairman Dr Peter Foley said any action to hasten death was unethical though pain medication that had a secondary effect of shortening life was sanctioned.

  • New Zealand: Dying doctor says NZ needs to legalise euthanasia [3news.co.nz]
    http://www.3news.co.nz/Dying-doctor-says-NZ-needs-to-legalise-euthanasia-/tabid/423/articleID/166735/Default.aspx

    This report quotes Dr Philip Nitschke of Exit International:
    Prominent Australian euthanasia advocate, Philip Nitschke, otherwise known as "Doctor Death" has praised John Pollock's stance.

    "The fact that the person is a doctor and would have been exposed to the worst aspects that some difficult deaths can involve and still wants to take the very courageous course of speaking publically about this - you've got to have a lot of courage to go down this path," he says. Mr Nitschke is coming to New Zealand again within the next few months, for presentations on euthanasia.

  • New Zealand: Doctor with cancer lobbies for euthanasia [Yahoo!Xtra News]
    http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/7612212/doctor-with-cancer-lobbies-for-euthanasia/

    Comments from the New Zealand Medical Association:
    However, NZMA chairman Pete Foley said even if the law changed, euthanasia would remain unethical. "The definition … gives you the answer: It is the act of deliberately ending the life of a patient. Doctors are in the business of the exact opposite," he said, "We don't change the laws and we don't change ethics based on popular behaviour."

  • German Medical Chief on Assisted Suicide Debate [Spiegel]
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,707438,00.html

    This report is introduced:
    A recent survey indicates that 37 percent of doctors in Germany would consider helping a terminally ill patient die, despite German Medical Association guidelines that say this is unethical. Jorg-Dietrich Hoppe, president of the association, discusses the country's debate over assisted suicide, euthanasia and the need to develop new guidelines.

    In the interview, Hoppe comments: Up until now, the view of the medical community has been that we don't want killing to be part of a doctor's tools, in any way. We'll see whether it stays that way.

    And the interview ends with:
    SPIEGEL: Instead, we currently have a gray area between criminal law, which is more liberal, and the professional code for doctors, which is more rigid. Many doctors fear they could lose their licenses to practice should they assist a suicide. Are they correct?

    Hoppe: No. Doctors do not need to be afraid of that. Outside of the case of Hackethal (Editor's note: Doctor and author Julius Hackethal, an advocate of active euthanasia who admitted he had helped his own mother die and was taken to court for his actions) I can't recall any situation in the profession in which a case was brought against a doctor for assisting a suicide.

Source:

Binning, Elizabeth. "Dying GP's last wish: Legalise euthanasia". The New Zealand Herald. 4:00 AM Wednesday Jul 21, 2010. <www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10660173>. The New Zealand Herald, PO Box 32, Auckland, New Zealand.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • euthanasia

  • voluntary euthanasia

  • New Zealand

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201007214025.
Mailed: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 14:46:16 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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