A LEADING palliative care advocate has said it would be “tragic” to see assisted dying.
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Retired palliative care specialist, Yvonne McMaster, visited the region recently urging local CWA members to petition the health minister and their local MPs to boost end-of-life care.
“I think it would be absolutely tragic if we started to kill people who were suffering because we haven’t got enough palliative care to relieve the suffering,” Dr McMaster told The Leader.
Palliative care can do something about the suffering in humans.
- Advocate Yvonne McMaster
Recent polling found about 70 per cent of NSW respondents would be in favour of voluntary euthanasia.
Dr McMaster understood there was a great level of community support for assisted dying.
“I wouldn’t blame anybody who didn’t have an initimate knowledge of what happens towards the end of life and how things can be made better to think ‘for goodness sake, you put a dog down if it’s suffering’,” she said.
“You put a dog down if it’s suffering and there’s nothing you can do about the suffering.
“Palliative care can do something about the suffering in humans.”
Eighteen per cent of the ReachTEL poll voters were undecided, while just 13 per cent were opposed or strongly opposed.
Dr McMaster has campaigned for more palliative services in communities across the state and said Tamworth was the most understaffed region in NSW for community-based care.
“Most suffering can be relieved by specialist palliative care,” she said.
The NSW parliament’s upper house will vote on an assisted dying bill later this month, which was introduced by Nationals MLC, Trevor Khan.
The bill to be voted on in NSW has laid down three main criteria for patients to request euthanasia.
They must be over 25, living with a terminal illness and likely to die within 12 months, as well as experiencing severe and unacceptable pain.
The Victorian government is currently debating its own assisted dying bill this week.