Doctors Warn on Euthanasia Dangers
By Gay Alcorn, Darwin, The Age, 30 January 1997
The general public would have to come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of doctors were opposed to voluntary euthanasia, the Australian Medical Association has told a Senate committee inquiry.
Five medical specialists from the Northern Territory, representing the local branch of the AMA, told the committee in Darwin that the danger of the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was that a patient with progressive illnesses such as diabetes, HIV and chronic heart disease could die in the early stages of their disease by using the law.
The specialists - who treat illnesses mainly with drugs - also said that the proponents of euthanasia were mostly from other areas and that the Northern Territory was being used as a "social laboratory" that could further damage Aboriginal trust in the health system.
Dr Diane Howard, a Northern Territory endocrinologist, said that a recent Western Australian study showed that more than 95 per cent of specialists objected to voluntary euthanasia.
"If you want to know if a bridge or a building is safe, you ask an engineer. If you want to know if a car design is safe, you talk to people who know about road safety and automotive engineering.
"Those who are concerned with the risks of this act and the decision making that’s going to be involved, would be very wise to listen to the doctors."
The role of specialists - who have to confirm a patient’s diagnosis and prognosis before they can die under the law - has been crucial, with the euthanasia supporter Dr Philip Nitschke saying they had deliberately thwarted the act, a claim denied by the AMA.
Six specialists, including three psychiatrists, have assisted in the three deaths under the law. Dr Nitschke has said that surgeons, rather than physicians, were more willing to help.
The Northern Territory’s Senator Bob Collins sat on the committee during its Friday hearing. He said that the late member for the NT seat of Arnhem, Mr Wes Lanhupuy, an initiated Aborigine who provided the crucial vote that enabled the law to pass through Parliament, had known that the vast majority of his mostly Aboriginal electorate were opposed to euthanasia, but that he had supported it for personal reasons.
"His wife died of cervical cancer and had a bad death at the age of 35. That was an entirely preventable situation which with good health care for Aboriginal people in the NT... wouldn’t have happened," Senator Collins said during the hearing.
Dr Frank Bowden, who has worked with HIV sufferers for more than 10 years, said there had been great advances in AIDS treatment since the euthanasia law was passed.
"This has consolidated my belief that medically assisted suicide would have killed a number of my patients who are now living productive... lives."
Earlier, Dr Nitschke told the Senate he had collected extensive information on about 30 patients who had contacted him since the law was passed. He said common characteristics were a desire to be "in control" of their lives and an unhappiness with their treatment from the medical profession.
He said 90 per cent of patients were cancer sufferers. The second largest group involved neurological diseases, and there was one contact from an HIV sufferer. Sixty-five per cent were women, most were from lower socio-economic groupings and there was a disproportionate number of rural people.
The hearings of the Senate legal and constitutional legislation committee into the effect of a federal private members bill that would overturn the NT law continue next month in Canberra. The committee is due to report on 24 February.