This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to theechidna.com.au
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The end came quickly one chilly morning after I found him standing motionless, his head wedged inside a prickly hedge.
God knows what intriguing smell had lured him there. But the mist that had been clouding his brain and turning his eyes glassy for months had done its work. He no longer knew how to reverse.
He tried to wag his tail in appreciation once I'd prised him loose. But even that was reduced to a pathetic quiver. So I waited until the kids had gone to school before taking him to the vet, who diagnosed lesions on the brain. His suffering would only worsen. There was no choice.
I cradled that beautiful chocolate retriever in my lap as the green fluid seeped into his body. I clutched him harder as his muscles relaxed. I wept as he shuddered and released a final sigh. And then I bawled all the way home and cursed the rock-strewn earth of our backyard as I dug his grave and waited to tell the kids.
But at least I could tell them that their dog, that dedicated tormentor of chooks and cats and obsessive lover of humans, had died a good death.
Isn't that something we all desire and deserve? We've been doing it for dogs ever since they chose to walk alongside us. So why, now the opportunity has finally arrived, are we making a dignified exit extraordinarily difficult for so many people dying in pain, particularly in regional and rural Australia?
Voluntary assisted dying legislation has now been passed by every state after years of political handwringing. While the laws vary slightly - Queensland, South Australia and NSW will begin operating over the next 12 months, with the ACT and the NT still waiting for federal legislative approval - all are unanimous on one point: anyone with an advanced terminal disease contemplating VAD must consult an accredited doctor in person.
Telehealth consultations - over the phone or computer and a godsend for so many small communities - are not allowed, thanks to an outdated federal law that prohibits "inciting or counselling" suicide via any electronic means.
Those of us in regional and rural areas know only too well the desperate shortage of medicos. Some regions are experiencing waits of up to a month or more for in-person appointments. Almost 50 towns in NSW alone are expected to be without a medical practice in the next few years, with a nationwide shortfall of about 11,000 GPs predicted over the next decade.
The majority of doctors who undertake the required VAD accreditation courses will, naturally, be based in the big cities. So no surprise that the bush will be left behind again. If the experience in Victoria is any guide, accredited GPs will be few and far between, anyway. Victoria's laws came into effect in June 2019. Two years later 234 doctors had completed the necessary training.
Meeting the approval criteria for a medically induced death is already difficult under the timid laws introduced around the country. You must have an incurable disease expected to cause death within six to 12 months, have made at least three formal requests, been assessed and approved by at least two independent doctors and, in most cases, undergone a psychological assessment.
That is stressful enough, particularly when you live every day in pain and are burdened with the knowledge of your impending death. But just imagine residing in a rural community and being forced, in constant discomfort, to undertake round trips of hundreds of kilometres simply to meet with an approved doctor.
The federal government is said to be looking at changing the law forbidding telehealth euthanasia consultations. But until it does, regional Australians wanting to end their pain by their own choosing will have to add just another layer of misery to their lives.
"We are not necessarily kind to animals," wrote the South African author Beverly Rycroft. "We use them. We eat them. But we don't like them to suffer. Yet humans must. They have to wait for the great Vet himself to decide how long their anguish must last and how deep it must reach. And He has ... a habit of waiting a long, long time before deciding to end their misery."
Our euthanasia laws were supposed to replace God's procrastinating ways. But our dogs remain better off. Now it's humans who must jump through a series of exhausting hoops just to get to the other side.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you support our euthanasia laws? Would you use them if you were suffering a terminal illness? And have you experienced difficulty seeing a doctor in regional or rural Australia? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- The jobless rate has dropped to 3.4 per cent, defying expectations of an increase and returning to the lowest level in 48 years. About 32,200 jobs were added to the Australian economy, with the participation rate remaining at 66.5 per cent. The October employment figures from the national statistics bureau reveal robust demand for labour, with jobs still plentiful and workers in short supply. "With employment increasing by around 32,000 people and the number of unemployed decreasing by 21,000 people, the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4 per cent," Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said.
- The Australian and Dutch governments will not let go of their bid to seek justice for the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. MH17 was a passenger flight shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 38 Australians. Australian families of the victims have travelled to the Netherlands for the verdict in a trial of four men, with links to Russia, accused of mass murder for their alleged roles in the tragedy. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in Bali for the G20 meeting, said he and his Australian counterparts would continue to fight for justice for the victims and their families.
- More than half a million Australians could experience long COVID with 110,000 of them suffering "significant impacts", according to modelling. Researchers from the University of Tasmania and Deakin University used three different models to estimate how many people may have long COVID symptoms in early December. They have called on the federal government to increase data gathering and surveillance, while the nation's peak body for general practitioners wants extra support to care for patients.
THEY SAID IT: "One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly." - Friedrich Nietzsche
YOU SAID IT: Trump's bid for a comeback, why our politics is not as toxic as America's and what needs to change to make our system even better.
Sue wants a better standard of politician: "Doctors need qualifications, journalists need qualifications, tradies need qualifications, the list goes on and on. When it comes to qualifications for being politicians, what can one say? The vast majority can in no way argue that they have trained for the community service we expect our politicians to be representing."
Margie says: "I agree ferociously with your opinions on the Trumpitus plague in the US. I struggle against a type of 'survivor guilt' that he is over there and not here. Daily, I revisit waves of relief. Is that wrong of me? Poor bloody Yanks. Now I have to be wary of complacency here. After all, does it matter if things are currently not good enough? No. I demand better of myself. Blunders from our current feds seem like cute little quirks compared to the appalling words and actions of the previous bellicose, right wingers who held the reins so tightly but I must keep focus now on the current team and hold them to account where I think I should. There's much to be done if we are to offer a bright future to our younger citizens."
Lin has an eye on the billionaires. "We have at least two billionaires who are very interested in changing Australia's political reality. One of them, Gina Rhinehart, sat in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom cheering Trump. Keep your eyes on that billionaire."
Samantha says: "Donald Trump president again? I could not think of anything worse ... Oh wait, having to see that ridiculous dance for the next two years, that could be worse."
Elaine's thankful: "Having just had a procedure at the local hospital, I'm eternally grateful for our health system. I'm on a pension, with no health insurance, and it didn't cost me a cent. I feel so sorry for Americans who have to go without if they don't have health insurance, and get turned away from hospitals. I can't understand the mentality of Republicans who want to wind back social services for the poor - so selfish and short sighted."
Joseph says: "Trump represents the basic instincts of many American males and they include subjugating women, getting rich by hook or by crook, appearing on TV and lying."
Donald's a fan of compulsory voting: "The idea of a Trump revival is from where I sit anathema to everything decent in the so-called First World. When I was young I resented the idea of compulsory voting: now, with the learning benefits of eight decades behind me, I am so grateful we have this commonsense law set in concrete. I believe that it is the major deterrent to any clumsy and even dangerous oaf trying to buy or coerce the ratbags, the selfish, and the potentially corruptible."
Jane says: "I am grateful to live in a country that has a semi proud history of doing the right thing. I am grateful to live in a country that is now doing something to right the wrongs of the past. I would love to be thankful for not having Black Friday sales but unfortunately some bright spark decided they would use another country's celebration to try and make us spend money. Totally irrelevant and ridiculous. Can this stop please, please?"
Our regular American-Australian correspondent Diane says: "You are not wrong with everything you said about American politics. Trump is definitely the worst of the lot but DeSantis of Florida comes a close second. You are right about family and politics. If the dad is Republican then so is the son, they don't even think about anything else. Thanksgiving is exactly as you describe it. Now I am in Australia I enjoy my Thanksgiving with good friends."
Elaine is thankful we don't have a Trump clone here in Australia: "One thing I am grateful for in our political system is our suspicion of too much power in the hands of either of the major political parties here. I have noticed over the years that if one party (either Liberal or Labor) gets into government in all the states, we carefully elect the opposition in the next federal election. Then one by one, most state governments fall to the opposition and power shifts in balance. Long may this continue."