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Submit ReviewVictoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying law came into effect in June 2019. The first of its kind in Australia and touted as the most conservative in the world, the passing of Victoria’s law was a watershed moment for end-of-life care in this country.
More than eighteen months on, in April 2021, what effect is this law having on end-of-life care for terminally ill Victorians? Is the law working as planned? And is there room for improvement?
The final episode of Better Off Dead season two centres on a recording of the Wheeler Centre’s Last Words: Voluntary Assisted Dying panel discussion. Previously broadcast on Radio National’s Big Ideas programme, it features a panel discussion on voluntary assisted dying hosted by Paul Barclay. Panelists include Andrew Denton, founder of Go Gentle Australia and host of the Better Off Dead podcast; Justice Betty King QC, Chair of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board; Professor Phillip Parente, oncologist; and Ron Poole, a terminally ill Shepparton man who has chosen to access the voluntary assisted dying life-ending medication.
Our special thanks to Ron Poole, who generously took time out of the precious final days of his life to share his perspective on voluntary assisted dying. Ron died on 26 April, less than a week after this panel discussion took place. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.
Justice Betty King"People come to this often – late. And they come late because they really haven’t known about it, haven’t been told about it or are in a situation where they don’t want to face mortality."
In order of appearance: Paul Barclay, Ron Poole, Andrew Denton, Phillip Parente, Betty King
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia.
Learn more about Go Gentle Australia’s work.
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Page and transcript: Alice Boyle (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan Herbert Commissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre) Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan Laser
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, and subscribe in iTunes, or follow via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/0da/890/e08/0da890e080db6883d6df1965b5f489e6aebf5df036ff6b22a3b618f76504/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e14%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.
When Victoria’s VAD law was passed in 2017, it was touted by Premier Daniel Andrews as ‘the most conservative in the world’. This was true. Its 68 safeguards made it a far more daunting law for terminally ill people to access than similar laws in other countries.
But was it too daunting?
Much was said in parliament by opponents about the law’s ‘unintended consequences’. What if there are wrongful deaths? What if the doctor-patient relationship is damaged? Palliative care diminished?
None of these fears have turned out to be true. But that doesn’t mean there have been no unintended consequences. They’ve just turned out to be not as opponents argued.
In this episode, we hear from the families of two eligible Victorians who struggled to access VAD. And we hear something never heard before —-- a father and daughter as they actually go through the process of applying for a VAD permit, a process during which initial gratitude quickly turns to frustration, fear and anger.
Reg Jebb“She wrote numerous letters and made numerous phone calls to, it seemed like, 30 neurologists, but nobody would do it. And Helen's doctor said ,’I think this is gonna be a race between us getting the approval for the VAD and you dying’”
Kristin Cornell“He was dying. He was suffering. He was begging, begging me the entire day to finish it. Where are they? Kristin? Where are they? Where are they?”
In order of appearance: Kristin Cornell, Allan Cornell, Reg Jebb, Betty King, Greg Mewitt, Nola Maxfield, Andrea Bendrups and Nick Carr
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia.
Learn more about Go Gentle Australia’s work.
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam RothwellProduction Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertTranscript: Alice BoyleCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre) Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: James Domeyko
Special thanks to our interviewees Kristin Cornell and Reg Jebb for their time for this episode.
Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, and subscribe in iTunes, or follow via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/c05/d5e/b9f/c05d5eb9f9b9441c235815c3fa0a520137c4d09f9de6fb18d4e8807c5274/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e13%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.
Whether it is through the words of the pope, his representatives the bishops and archbishops, or its surrogates in the medical profession, the Catholic Church remains the most determined force against voluntary assisted dying in Australia.
In 2020, The Vatican released its latest encyclical on assisted dying and euthanasia. They called it Samaritanus Bonus – the Good Samaritan – and this is what it had to say about people who seek assistance to die.
“Experience confirms that the pleas of gravely ill people who sometimes ask for death are not to be understood as implying a true desire for euthanasia; in fact, it is almost always a case of an anguished plea for help and love.”
Requests for assistance to die are ‘not to be understood as a true desire for euthanasia.’ In other words, the people making them are somehow misguided.
According to this narrative, people making such requests are likely to be demoralised; lonely; abandoned, feeling like a burden; or struggling to find meaning in – or even giving up on - their lives. And that, with the right kind of love and care, these things can be addressed.
In this episode, we hear from some of the most senior figures in Australian palliative care. We also hear from others who have a different understanding of such requests, and who believe that the people who make them can be both considered and rational.
Professor Michael Ashby“It is not the role of any healthcare team to suggest that its ministrations can give meaning, purpose and dignity to a dying person’s remaining life if that person feels that these are irretrievably lost... Palliative care is a model of care, not a moral crusade.”
Ron Fellows, Margaret Somerville, Patricia Fellows, Megan Best, Mark Coleridge, Jean Caliste, Jacqui Hicks, Nicole Robertson, Deb M, Katie Harley, Kristin Cornell, Peter Jones, Ron Poole, Fiona McClure, Phillip Parente, Peter Lange, Betty King, Michael Dooley, Anthony Fisher, Stephen Parnis, Michael Ashby, Natasha Michael, David Kissane, Malcolm Parker, Roger Hunt, Molly Carlile, Greg Mewett, Shayne Higson, Alex Broom, Kit Denton, Peter Abetz,
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertTranscript: Alice BoyleCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Simon Kindt, Aaron Gleeson, and Joe Lodge
Special thanks to our interviewees Michael Ashby, Roger Hunt, Malcolm Parker and Molly Carlile for their time for this episode.Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, and subscribe in iTunes, or follow via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with voluntary assisted dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/b5d/fe9/074/b5dfe9074ccf06a23ce842df19bfcdca7e05a95bf694e00eff04723fda08/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e12%20transcript(Steve%20Offner%E2%80%99s%20copy%20May%2019%20235645).docx.pdf">PDF format.
The assisted dying debate in Australia has revealed two parallel universes. The conservative Christian universe, which believes our lives belong to God; that whatever happens at the end of life is part of His plan. And the other universe – embracing 75% of Australians (including a majority of Christians) – with a shared belief we should have some control over how we die.
Two different, but both entirely sincere, belief systems.
What happens when these parallel universes intersect? What can it mean to die in a system where you are disempowered, and whose values you don’t share?
Professor Alex Broom“What people don't realise is that they're entering an environment with particular values, and a history about what is okay, or not okay, and the nature of suffering. And by entering into that the patient and the family is almost embarking on an unwritten contract – that death will be not on my terms, but on the terms of the institution”
In order of appearance:
Katie Harley, Megan Best, Alex Broom, Richard Chye, Shayne Higson, Roger Hunt, Jan K.
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)
Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Commissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertTranscript: Alice BoyleTheme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Aaron Gleeson
Special thanks to our interviewees Shayne Higson, Alex Broom, Roger Hunt and Jan K for their time for this episode.Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, and subscribe in iTunes, or follow via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/e2c/78c/547/e2c78c54704ec3429ceba4bbac15730142090a350812c1ee44bdde85c2ce/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e11%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format. centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/041/110/f7d/041110f7d8ec9c81ce8ca595cc4fd66e046bad9230c7ec1ae071b60ac6a6/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e11%20transcript.docx.pdf">
At the heart of the political debate around voluntary assisted dying lies palliative care. On one side sits the argument that it can effectively deal with all pain and suffering, and that it should be made available to everyone before Assisted Dying is made legal.
On the other, a recognition that – for all its benefits – palliative care cannot help everyone, and that those beyond its help should not be left to suffer, or – as some do – take their own lives.
But beyond the political debate, within palliative care lies a much deeper argument. One about values.
Palliative care’s background is as a provider of Christian care; more than half of Australia’s palliative care is supplied by The Catholic Church. According to The Vatican, assisting someone to die is ‘intrinsically evil.’
By papal decree, any request by a person for help to end their life is not to be taken as genuine, but is to be understood instead as ‘an anguished plea for help and love.’
But some palliative care clinicians have a different set of values. They see that their primary purpose is to act in response to what their patient wants and needs.
It’s called person-centred care, a way of practising medicine that has been thrown into the sharpest focus imaginable by a law allowing doctors to help their patients to die.
Palliative care clinician, Molly Carlile AM‘The bottom line for me is, you can choose whether you want to stop having chemo or anything else that you consider as futile treatment. And we are the defenders of those people. So how can we say, in the same breath, “Yes, you can make your choices, so long as it's not voluntary assisted dying?”’
In order of appearance
Jaala Pulford, Molly Carlile, Greg Mewett, Michael Ashby, Roger Hunt, Andrew Sloane, Anthony Fisher, Megan Best, John Flader, Tim Harris, Natasha Michael, Stephen Parnis, Jane Morris, Clive Deverall, Lisa Hogg, Alex Broom, Jan Kelly
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertTranscript: Alice BoyleCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Jon Murphy, Brendan John Warner, Simon Kindt, Aaron Gleeson
Special thanks to our interviewees Molly Carlile, Greg Mewett, Michael Ashby and Roger Hunt for their time for this episode.
Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Subscribe via iTunes or your favourite podcast app.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/214/27d/c00/21427dc0041eed04e4c8f1d6d55a4b500dd2501338ef05ad9287eb0241c6/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e10%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.
In September 2020, as Tasmania’s Upper House prepared to debate an Assisted Dying bill, an article appeared on the online publication Mercatornet. Above a picture showing a graph of a flatlining heartbeat superimposed over an elderly hand was a headline in big, bold letters:
‘Grandma took her life yesterday. Her doctors helped her.’
The article described a lonely, elderly woman, seemingly abandoned by her family in a Melbourne nursing home during COVID, encouraged by her doctors to end her life using Victoria’s Assisted Dying law.
Within days, it was being promoted by religious groups and The Australian Family Association as a warning to MPs about why they should vote down the Tasmanian bill.
In this episode, we reveal the truth behind that story. Who was Grandma? Had her family really abandoned her? Was her decision to die her own, or was she encouraged?
And what was it that connected the crusading author and the website that gave her story a global platform?
‘Ruth’s’ daughter ‘Jane’‘Just to get out of bed, you could tell she was in pain... she was really struggling. My brother said, ‘God, if Mum could have that medicine tomorrow, she would take it.’ Everybody was understanding because we all knew what she'd been through and didn't want her to go through that again.
In order of appearance:
Neil Mitchell, Eugene Ahern, ‘Bronwyn’, ‘Jane’, Tom Kenyon, Helen Lord, Leon Compton, Megan Best, Andrew Sloane, Tom Keneally, Stephen Parnis, Roger Hunt, Greg Mewett, Molly Carlile
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertTranscript: Alice BoyleCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’ written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Brendan John Warner, James Domeyko, Simon Kindt, Michael Cusack
Special thanks to interviewees ‘Jane’ and her family and Thomas Keneally for their time for this episode.
Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, subscribe in iTunes, or via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/330/1eb/50e/3301eb50eafa2e00e8a7aeceb6a4fd4634acf619138992bd2863ca16e71d/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e09%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format. centre-heracles.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/processed/96/78298cd7a3474c804a435f961c9bc9/9678298cd7a3474c804a435f961c9bc9_original.pdf">
The key word in Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying law is the first one: ‘voluntary’. By law, any doctor, nurse, or other health professional who conscientiously objects can choose not to participate in a person’s request for voluntary assisted dying.
But how does an institution balance its employees legal right to conscientiously object with its obligation to care for its patients?
In this episode, we meet Colin, a former champion swimmer and professor of philosophy who is dying and who has applied for the legal right to end his own life. Colin lives by the ancient Roman philosophy of Stoicism. This is what the Stoic Marcus Aurelius had to say about death: ‘Accept death in a cheerful spirit, as nothing but the dissolution of the elements from which each living thing is composed’. For a Stoic, it is good to “choose to die well while you can”.
Colin is living in a Catholic nursing home. They have a very different philosophy about death and dying. To a staunch Catholic, choosing to end your life early is to “to take the place of God in deciding the moment of death”.
What happens when these two ancient philosophies meet in one Melbourne nursing home?
And when does ‘conscientious objection’ become ‘conscientious obstruction’?
Colin’s sister, Debra“I don't understand how people can think that that's a good or an ethical thing to do to someone, like physically and emotionally to put people through that suffering”
Visit Go Gentle Australia gogentleaustralia.org.au
Letter to Mercy Health, Go Gentle Australia, 15 January 2021
Response from Mercy Health, 7 February 2021
Article: the-archives-george-pell-our-man-in-rome-20190226-p510d4.html">‘George Pell, Our Man in Rome’, – The Good Weekend Magazine, 26 February 2019
Article: ‘Stoicism in a time of pandemic: how Marcus Aurelius can help’ – The Guardian 25 April 2020
In this episode (in order of appearance):Deb M, Andrea Bendrups, Elliot D, John Stanton, Mark Coleridge, Peter Lange
Better Off Dead is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia.
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: James Domeyko, Aaron Gleeson
Special thanks to the family and medical carers of Colin M for their time for this episode.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Subscribe in iTunes, or your favourite podcast app. #betteroffdeadpod
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/a54/d96/39e/a54d9639efbac0e0bb3fcc7eb76ef94d1b1157b08f249e9c082803682c2a/Better%20Off%20Dead%20-%20episode%208%20transcript.pdf">PDF format.
There are many firsts in Betty King’s life. First female prosecutor for the state of Victoria. First female prosecutor for the Commonwealth of Australia. First female silk in Victoria. Now another – first Chair of Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board.
Reporting to parliament, the Board oversees the processes of the law with its 68 safeguards, ensuring that doctors adhere to the rules, and that the people seeking assistance to die are competent and not being coerced.
Of all the doubts raised by MPs in the parliamentary debate about assisted dying, none was more frequent than the fear that a vulnerable person may be coerced to their death by heartless relatives through the VAD law.
In this episode, we meet Betty – the “Guardian of the Safeguards’ – as well as doctors, palliative care physicians, pharmacists, VAD Care Navigators, and families of those who have been through the process to find out whether any of those fears have turned out to be true.
And we discover there is another, unwritten safeguard: To take this path, you have to have enormous courage.
Betty King“It's not an easy process. But neither it should be. This is the ending of a life. And it ought to be treated in a serious manner. Because it's a serious thing to do.”
In this episode (in order of appearance):
Betty King, Stephen Parnis, John Daffy, John Stanton, Nola Maxfield, David Speakman, Susan D, Melanie D, Katie Harley, Andrea Bendrups, Greg Mewett, Nick Carr, Phillip Parente, Cameron McLaren, Peter Lange, Kristin Cornell, Lisa Hogg, Reg Jebb, Jean Caliste, Nicole Robertson, Jon Faine, Jacqui Hicks, Michael Dooley, Molly Carlile
Better Off Dead is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia.
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Aaron Gleeson, Martin Peralta
Special thanks to our interviewee Betty King for her time for this episode.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Subscribe in iTunes, or your favourite podcast app. #betteroffdeadpod
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/1d4/e24/6cd/1d4e246cd1997b431d7792d7722ab7faa7df4567a04a91dca5541d8f4b27/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e07%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/1d4/e24/6cd/1d4e246cd1997b431d7792d7722ab7faa7df4567a04a91dca5541d8f4b27/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e07%20transcript.docx.pdf">
Imagine turning up to work one day to discover flyers outside your office accusing you of being a ‘death peddler’ and an ‘Uber service for poison’.
Professor Michael Dooley runs Victoria’s Statewide Pharmacy Service. When voluntary assisted dying became legal it was his job, and that of his team, to come up with medication that would effectively and painlessly end a terminally ill person’s life - and also a way to safely get it to them.
Michael and his team are the last step – and the final safeguard – in the long legal process a dying person has to go through to access the medication.
What is it like to walk into someone’s home to give them a draught designed to end their life? Who do they meet and what do they hear? And what happens if, at this very last step, they have to tell someone, ‘I’m sorry, but no.’?
Professor Michael Dooley“We find leaving very, very difficult. Because you have to say goodbye... and we've all talked about how we do it… And there's no easy way and we all have our own little way. You know, it's not a normal goodbye.”
In this episode (in order of appearance):
Kristin Cornell, Michael Dooley, Nicole Robertson, Debra M, Kristin Cornell, Jacqui Hicks, Jon Faine, Jean Caliste, Katie Harley, Liz Le Noble, Jason McKey
Better Off Dead is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia.Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta, with assistance from Adam Rothwell Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)
Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia)Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media)Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre)Episode Artwork: Megan HerbertCommissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserMusic: Jon Murphy, Aaron Gleeson, Brendon John Warner, Simon Kindt
Special thanks to our interviewee Michael Dooley for his time for this episode.
Footage supplied courtesy of Seven Network. All rights reserved. ©
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – or if you’ve had an experience with Voluntary Assisted Dying, we would love to hear from you. Tell your story here.
Subscribe in iTunes, or your favourite podcast app.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/b37/db5/606/b37db56068f9e01585c60720830d2d319d16fbc39e4a037032825d8114f4/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e06%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.
So much was said during Victoria’s parliamentary debate about the people who would choose voluntary assisted dying, were it to be made legal.
That they could not possibly know their own minds.
Nat Suleyman, MP“I do not believe that an individual who is facing such enormous pressure and stress is capable of making a decision to end their own life.”
That the burden of possessing life-ending medication would be too much for them.
Luke O’Sullivan, MLC“If I was in that situation, I would probably think about it every hour — ‘Will I take it now? Will I take it tomorrow? Will I take it after I’ve watched my favourite TV show?”
That they would be pushed into ending their lives by hard-hearted relatives.
Neil Angus, MP“Sometimes the relatives might … be wanting to encourage the person to take their medicine — take their poison, I should say.”
Or that they should never even need to make such a choice, because palliative care could alleviate all their pain and suffering.
Robert Clark, MP“Advances in palliative care medicine have been prodigious, to the point where well-managed cases under best practice palliative care can eliminate physical pain and discomfort.”
Why don’t we just let these people speak for themselves?
Meet Ron Poole, Fiona McClure, and Peter Jones, three Victorians from very different backgrounds in the final stages of a terminal illness and facing potentially brutal deaths.
Each has exhausted treatment options and been offered expert palliative care. Each has chosen to complete the VAD assessment and has in their possession life-ending medication that they can choose to take – or not – when the time is right.
Buoyed by the peace of mind of knowing they have an option to end their suffering if it becomes too great, all are determined to live what remains of their life to the full and say their goodbyes in the best way they know how.
Fiona McClure, metastatic stomach cancer“I'd like to go out in a pretty dress with a pretty pink lipstick, and having just had a latte with a girlfriend. And I’m still looking forward to that glass of champagne after I take the draught. French champagne.”
In this episode (in order of appearance): Ron Poole, Fiona McClure, Wim Wansink, Peter Jones
Better Off Dead season two is produced by the Wheeler Centre and Go Gentle Australia
Learn more about Go Gentle Australia’s work
Writer, Co-Producer and Host: Andrew Denton (Go Gentle Australia) Series Co-Producer and Script Editor: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton (The Wheeler Centre) Associate Producers: Kiki Paul and Steve Offner (Go Gentle Australia) Audio Editor and Engineer: Martin Peralta Production Assistant: Alex Gow (The Wheeler Centre)Marketing: Emily Harms (The Wheeler Centre), Steve Offner and Frankie Bennett (Go Gentle Australia) Publicity: Debbie McInnes (DMCPR Media) Episode Pages: Mia McAuslan (The Wheeler Centre) Episode Transcript: Alice Boyle Commissioning Editors: Kiki Paul (Go Gentle Australia) and Caro Llewellyn (The Wheeler Centre)Theme music: ‘Loydie’s Angel’, written and performed by Jordan LaserEpisode Artwork: Megan Herbert
Music: James Domeyko, Aaron Gleeson, Alex Gow, Martin Peralta
Special thanks to our interviewees Ron Poole, Fiona McClure, Wim Wansink and Peter Jones for giving up their precious time for these interviews. Since recording this episode, Peter and Ron have died. Our thoughts are with their loved ones.
Listen to Better Off Dead season one here, and subscribe in iTunes, or follow via your favourite podcast app.
If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – add your voice and tell your story here.
Download a transcript of this episode in centre-heracles.s3.amazonaws.com/b37/8ff/6c4/b378ff6c4ad8dc5ea32d07d812a3e417110d82b43acb6af3fbe6131159d9/Better%20Off%20Dead%20s02e05%20transcript.docx.pdf">PDF format.
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