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The Forum > Article Comments > Canberrans want good deaths > Comments

Canberrans want good deaths : Comments

By David Swanton, published 5/7/2024

Why are dementia and like conditions such a big issue? Dementia is now the greatest burden of disease in the over-65s, the most significant cause of death in women and the second leading cause of death for all Australians.

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Dear JP,

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According to government statistics, hanging has become the most common method of suicide in Australia and the use of this method increased substantially over the last 25 years. Age-standardised rates of suicide by hanging remain much higher for males than females but have increased for both sexes.

In 2022 there were 3,249 suicides. That’s a rate of about 9 suicides a day, every day of the year.

While the reasons for an individual’s suicide death are personal and often complex, overall peaks and troughs in rates and numbers of deaths by suicide historically coincide – more or less – with social and economic events.

One in 6 (16.7%) Australians aged 16–85 had experienced serious thoughts about taking their own life at some point in their lives.

One in 14 (7.1%) of Australians aged 16–85 years had made a suicide plan and around 5% had attempted suicide during their lifetime.

The International Association for Suicide Prevention indicates that an estimated 700 000 people die by suicide, worldwide, each year, and, globally, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

I think we have to recognise that life and death are two sides of the same coin. There can be no life without death and no death without life. The two are absolutely inseparable. If life is a fundamental human right, then death is too.

It will not happen overnight, but we must prepare for a radical change in our attitude towards life and death. Democracy and justice are solidly anchored in an ocean of inertia by the massive iron chains of archaic religious dogma in a position of opposition to the most fundamental of human rights. Our democracy and justice have been insensitive far too long to the pain and suffering of people wishing to lawfully exercise their right to life and death.

They are left with no other choice but to have recourse, alone with their solitude and in a terrible state of despair, to the most barbaric, inhuman and expeditious methods in order to carry out their macabre enterprise.

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(Continued …)

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 8:58:25 AM
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(Continued …)

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Euthanasia is not something for religion or the medical profession to decide. The role of religion is to provide spiritual solace to those who require it and that of the medical profession to provide the most effective medical assistance possible. Euthanasia, or “good death”, has to be the personal decision of the individual exercising his free will without, or in spite of, any outside influence.

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 9:02:45 AM
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Banjo

You wrote, “Euthanasia, or “good death”, has to be the personal decision of the individual exercising his free will without, or in spite of, any outside influence”. So, like David Swanton, the author of the article, you also seem to be advocating that anyone, for any reason, should be given assistance to kill themselves if that is what they request.

Please consider this: what if your 18-year-old child were to have a broken heart after their first love broke up with them and your child then repeatedly said they wanted to die. Can you say in all honesty that you would recognise their personal decision to exercise their free will and, without any attempt to influence them, you would accept them being given assistance to be killed?

I find it virtually impossible to believe that you would simply accept this. But given what you have said is your position, why wouldn’t you?
Posted by JP, Tuesday, 9 July 2024 11:40:19 AM
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Dear JP,

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I had that experience with one of my granddaughters. My daughter (her mother) was divorced and bringing the children up on her own so my role as a grandfather was a lot more demanding than it would have been if the children had had a father.

My daughter called for help when she discovered that her younger daughter, who was 13 years old at the time had been secretly communicating with a 21-year-old guy on the internet for several months with whom she said she was madly in love.

We discovered that the guy had contacted our granddaughter on a site for children of her age in which she participated regularly. We figured he was probably a paedophile predator and warned her of the danger. She listened but was not persuaded. Her mother informed the police who phoned the guy and told him to leave her alone. That was when she attempted to commit suicide and we called the local emergency service and the fire brigade who arrived first.

They rushed her off to hospital and managed to save her. She then spent several weeks under close surveillance in a psychiatric clinic.

She had no further contact with the guy for four years following her release from the clinic. But when she turned 17, she asked her mother to let her see the guy for the first time in her life. Her mother agreed and arranged a meeting not just with the guy, but with the guy, his mother, her daughter and herself.

A year later, when her daughter turned 18, the couple decided to live together which they did and have been doing for some years now. My granddaughter is continuing her university studies and working in a bank at the same time to help pay the rent.

That dramatic affair had a happy ending, but it came from nowhere and hit me like a lightning bolt and forced me to witness the tragic scene of a desperate suicide attempt in the worst possible conditions.

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(Continued …)

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Wednesday, 10 July 2024 9:34:54 AM
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(Continued …)

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As I indicated in my previous post, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

My granddaughter was dragged back from the brink of death in the most abominable conditions imaginable. Not all 13- or 15–29-year-olds, have that chance.

How could anybody prefer their children or grandchildren to die in the worst possible conditions of pain and suffering ? That is the reality today for all too many individuals. We are not always there to prevent it, or to save them if we can.

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Wednesday, 10 July 2024 9:38:16 AM
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Banjo - I am glad to hear that the situation with your granddaughter did not end in complete disaster with her taking her life.

I am confused though. On the one hand, you have said that such decisions have to be "the personal decision of the individual exercising his free will without, or in spite of, any outside influence" but then you say that when your granddaughter made the decision to end her life you called the ambulance to try and save her.

I believe you did the right thing by calling the ambulance but your calling the ambulance contradicts your claim that people should be allowed to make these decisions for themselves without any interference.

So what is it that actually believe should be done?
Posted by JP, Wednesday, 10 July 2024 10:40:33 AM
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