If more doctors understand palliative care best practices, euthanasia will go nowhere, says bioethicist.
By Anthony Barich
More resources are needed to improve some doctors’ “primitive” understanding of the world’s best palliative care in order to relieve the push for euthanasia laws, Perth bioethicist Rev Dr Joseph Parkinson said.
Rev Dr Parkinson, director of the LJ Goody Bioethics Centre, said that educating doctors on palliative care best practices is the key to fighting the current push to legalise euthanasia.
He warned that the WA Voluntary Euthanasia Society is using 49-year-old quadriplegic Christian Rossiter as a test case to expand the Acts Amendment (Consent to Medical Treatment) Act 2008 passed in June last year to a euthanasia act.
WA VES president Ranjan Ray told The West Australian that people like Mr Rossiter proved that living wills legislation that record a person’s treatment wishes in a legally binding document, “did not go far enough”.
Mr Rossiter was in The West last month pleading for laws to help him die, but Rev Dr Parkinson said that while his case is a tragic and sad one, he is asking for more than what a civilised society ought to do.
Mr Rossiter told The West he wants to spend $100,000 to end his life in Switzerland where euthanasia is legal rather than refuse nutrition and endure a prolonged and painful death.
Rev Dr Parkinson said that for people like Mr Rossiter, “we as a society need to put more emphasis on ensuring all doctors are up to speed on what’s possible to do with preventative palliative care around the world. My experience is that some doctors have very primitive ideas of palliative care, and that’s very sad,” he said.
Rev Dr Parkinson added that “no matter how good the quality of care that will be available, there will still be patients who want something else”.
“There’s nothing we can do about that, but it would be a big mistake if we were to change our whole attitude to dying on the basis of what these individuals want. They have tragic cases but what they’re asking is more than what a civilised society ought to do.
“That’s their personal choice and desire, and I don’t think anyone can criticise him for having that desire to die quickly,” Rev Dr Parkinson said.
“But that’s not something we as a society can sustain.”
He says that the recent publicity surrounding Mr Rossiter is part of a coordinated campaign to win public support for another voluntary euthanasia bill prepared by Greens MP Robin Chapple, whose Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2002 was defeated comprehensively in WA Parliament.
Rev Dr Parkinson warned of more cases like Mr Rossiter who will over the next six to 12 months be “wheeled out” by WA VES as part of the campaign.
“What they won’t say is that there are other patients like Christian who don’t want euthanasia, and who are in worse situations, who don’t want the risk of being euthanized,” Rev Dr Parkinson said. “The dilemma is that if we give into the few who want this, we’re putting at risk many others who don’t want it.”
He said that concerns about the Consent to Medical Treatment Act amendments were well-founded as it could be taken in the context of an ongoing campaign for euthanasia.
However, he said the Bill itself has tight restrictions on making an advanced health directive to make a decision on a person’s behalf. He said it’s “almost impossible” to draw one up if the person who wants one is not already suffering a life-threatening condition.
He said that countries who have legalised euthanasia have shown that “we’re signing the death warrant for countless others who don’t want to be euthanised but who will be”.
“If we set up a system where doctors are allowed to end people’s lives on the base of illness or suffering, then some classes of people will be expected to be euthanised, like the extremely disabled, the old, those with dementia and children with major genetic abnormalities, as is happening in Holland,” he said.
Holland’s figures from 2001 showed that out of 7700 who were euthanised, 980 did not ask for it.