Woman chooses palliative care ahead of euthanasia

Sydney
14 April 2002

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Woman chooses palliative care ahead of euthanasia

By Chris Hook

Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby has welcomed the decision of a Queensland woman, Nancy Crick, to delay her plans to commit euthanasia and in

stead seek further palliative care.

After announcing at a public meeting last month that she intended to take her own life, Mrs Crick, 69, who suffers from bowel cancer, has now entered

St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Archbishop Bathersby said: “Respect for human life is the very foundation of civilisation.

“As soon as we argue

for the deliberate termination of human life, whether we are discussing abortion, capital punishment or euthanasia, even

by our own hand, we diminish ourselves as a people and open the way for further erosion of values.

“Any erosion of that respect, no matter how plausible it may seem or how emotionally charged the atmosphere may be under the pressure of human suffering, seriously tampers with the very foundation of our civilisation.”

There has been spec ulation that people from other countries might travel to the Netherlands and try to take advantage of a new law that formally sanctions euthanasia there.

However, a NSW anti-euthanasia campaigner, Dr Brian Pollard, says this is unlikely.

Dutch authorities had always made it clear they did not intend euthanasia to be available to visitors from other countries, he said.

The law specifically required a well established relationship between doctor and patient, which prevented the possibility of euthanasia tourism.

“But the law is very weak in many ways,” Dr Pollard said.

“That clause may be sufficiently strong, but the problem they have is that these safeguards are the same they have always had for the past 12 years or more.

“These safeguards are known to be frequently disregarded, bypassed and watered down, yet still Dutch representatives, euthanasia advocates and the media all refer to them

as strict.

“They are anything but strict, they are bypassed the whole time and doctors are not penalised.

“This law simply endorses the illegal and lax practices that have been commonplace for nearly 30 years,” he added.