The toll that euthanasia and assisted suicide is taking on families is becoming clearer, as local stories emerge of the traumatic impact this process has on the loved ones of the deceased.
I want to share just one such story.
It was the first week of January when I received notification that someone had left a voicemail on my office landline. I thought it was odd that someone would try me at work during the Christmas/New Year break, and so I listened to the message immediately.
The message was from Jane*, a woman who I’d never encountered before, telling me that she believed her elderly grandmother had been manipulated into euthanasia and urgently needed some help.
I phoned Jane back straight away and she told me that while she was not Catholic, her grandmother, Marge*, was a devout Catholic whose beautiful faith was the reason Jane herself because a Christian. She told me that her grandmother believed in the sanctity of human life and would never seek euthanasia.
Jane lives interstate and explained to me that Marge lived in Sydney, so her ability to obtain clear information about Marge’s health and mental state was limited and dependent on good communication from her carer.
More recently, Jane told me, these communications had become less frequent and the information flow restricted. Jane was desperate, looking for someone to advocate for her and her grandmother before it was too late.
As I listened to Jane, my heart broke for her because I knew there was very little that could be done for Marge.
First, time was against her. The median time between a first request for euthanasia being made and death occurring through the administration of lethal drugs is just under three weeks.
Jane did not know how long the process had been going, but it was likely she only had a matter of days.
Second, it would be difficult for Jane to prove anything was awry.
Jane’s protests that her grandmother would not choose euthanasia if she “was in her right mind” because she had, for more than 80 years, lived as a faithful Catholic and espoused the church’s teachings on human life would count for naught against the word of two doctors who signed off that Marge had decision-making capacity, even if those doctors had never met or treated Marge prior to the euthanasia process.
Additionally, the standard for decision-making capacity required by the law is quite low.
Patients are presumed to have the ability to make the decision if it reasonably appears they understand an explanation of the consequences of the decision.
Marge’s decades of fidelity to the church’s teaching were not evidence that Marge wasn’t thinking straight, because two doctors had attested that she understood what would happen as a result of the request, and that’s all that mattered.
What’s more, it wouldn’t matter if Marge was clinically depressed or suffering anxiety or had some other mental health condition; as long as she could understand the consequences of her request, she was good to go.
Thirdly, while Jane could have made an application to the Supreme Court to have the decision of her grandmother’s doctors reviewed, she had very little information to go on.
She did not know details about the doctors or where they practiced, and there is no obligation for doctors to inform family members about a person’s euthanasia request.
And it’s not like Jane would have been able to obtain information about her grandmother’s medical care because privacy laws surrounding medical treatment in general and the euthanasia process in particular are strict.
Jane felt helpless and so did I.
Ten days after Jane first called me, she sent me a note to say Marge had died.
Jane told me that she did not know whether her grandmother was euthanised or not and did not know how to access this information.
I told her that if a doctor suspected a euthanasia or assisted suicide death, they were obliged to record it on the death certificate, but Jane was unable to obtain a copy of that because she was not her grandmother’s next of kin.
A month later, Jane is still in the dark about what happened.
She doesn’t know if her grandmother is one of the many people who have already died because of this law, or if she died naturally.
If she did die through the administration of lethal drugs, Jane does not know if it was something she really wanted or if there were other influences at play.
And the sad fact is, she will likely never know.
Euthanasia requests made and implemented without transparency are compounding the grief of people like Jane who are already mourning the loss of a loved one.
It is not a grief that is ever talked about in these debates, but listening to the pain in Jane’s voice left me in no doubt it is real.
According to the most recent report, euthanasia deaths are occurring in NSW at a rate of around two deaths each day. Daily, two people in our state are the most obvious victims of this awful regime, but they are not the only ones. Jane is a victim too.
*Names changed to protect identity
