Euthanasia and assisted suicide are two different but equally controversial issues, and lumping them together only fuels the controversy. Euthanasia is generally defined as the bringing about of a gentle and easy death in the case of incurable and painful disease, whereas suicide is the intentional killing of yourself irrespective of whether you have an incurable or painful disease.

Just because you are tired of life is not euthanasia, but you are still free to commit suicide. However, such tired of life people cannot be ‘assisted’ to intentionally kill themselves without the assistant being considered a killer.

Moreover, euthanasia (bringing about a gentle and easy death) is not necessarily elder abuse – but prolonging the death of a dying person, arguably, is.

Unfortunately, other forms of elder abuse continue to be, shamelessly, rampant and it unequivocally is contributing to victims committing suicide, and it must be addressed before we can progress with the euthanasia debate. Sadly, highly emotive - and ignorant – comments only aid those stubbornly opposed to euthanasia. To suggest that concern for elder abuse by relatives (or others) is nobody else’s damn business is akin to suggesting that concern about a child being sexually or physically abused by a relative is nobody else’s damn business. We simply must break the silence.

It is indisputable that many family members – including baby boomers - are abusing their older relatives. It is also an absolute fact that (often in order to placate cashed up junior relatives with a sense of entitlement) many lawyers and doctors are abusing older people by either deeming them as having capacity when they don’t have it, or deeming them as lacking capacity when they still have it. It is also unequivocal that elder abusers include Public Advocates, Public Trustees, Administrative and Guardianship Tribunals and other members of government funded elder abuse alliances. That’s correct; the purported protectors are often the perpetrators.

Deal with elder abuse as the separate issue that it is – via nothing less than a royal commission – and stop muddying the waters by linking assisted suicide with euthanasia.