by Paul Russell: I have written a number of times now about the situations where doctors 'go public' claiming to have flaunted the law by killing a person in an act of euthanasia and almost (and sometimes, actually) daring the Police to act against them.Such doctors seem always to be 'going public' in an effort to create or support momentum towards changing the law on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The stories usually include some rhetoric that would have us believe that theirs is a brave act, bordering on heroic; a sacrifice for the sake of others. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: Western Australia is a long ways away from the rest of the nation. I'm told that West Australians like it that way. Perhaps that might explain why they seem to do their 'politics' a little differently:A West Australian doctor, Alida Lancee, recently admitted to providing a 'lethal injection' to a woman in her 80s who had 'severe emphysema'. Some of the details of this story were recently released in a book that amounts to a collection of stories about difficult deaths. Continue reading

Victorian Upper House MP, Rachel Carling-Jenkins (DLP - Western Metropolitan) made a statement in Parliament last week expressing her outrage at the murders of 19 people living with disability in Japan. ATTACK IN JAPAN: A HATE CRIME AGAINST PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Dr CARLING-JENKINS (Western Metropolitan) 19th August 2016 - I rise today to express my shock and sadness at the killing of 19 people with disabilities at a Japanese residential care home on Tuesday, 26 July, over our winter break. This tragedy can only be described as a hate crime deliberately targeting people with disabilities. The man arrested for the stabbings, who killed 19 people and injured 26 others, had written a letter to the Japanese government. Part of that letter said, and I quote: Continue reading

By Paul Russell: Next month will mark the twentieth anniversary of the introduction into the Australian Federal Parliament of the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996. Introduced on the 9th of September 1996 by the Member for Menzies, Kevin Andrews MP, the bill was designed to remove from the Australian Self-Governing Territories the ability to pass legislation relating to euthanasia and assisted suicide:"...the power of the Legislative Assembly conferred by section 6 in relation to the making of laws does not extend to the making of laws which permit or have the effect of permitting (whether subject to conditions or not) the form of intentional killing of another called euthanasia (which includes mercy killing) or the assisting of a person to terminate his or her life." Continue reading

by Paul Russell: It is almost exactly two years since South Australian euthanasia campaigner, Max Bromson took his own life in a motel at a seaside suburb of Adelaide.After two years of investigation, South Australian Police confirmed today that they will not be laying charges against former doctor and head of Exit International, Philip Nitschke nor Mr Bromson's family members who were present when he died. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: We talk about 'human nature' as code for our base instincts and actions of the lowest kind and, paradoxically, also as an appeal to the highest of human ideals as a remedy. But it is an inescapable reality that not every person acts or will act at all times with the best intentions towards others.No-one can deny that abuses do happen. We live in a less-than-perfect world that requires vigilance as well as the creation and application of laws that frown upon abuse while, at the same time, creating penalties for those who do abuse. Continue reading

by Canberra writer and member of Lives Worth Living, Daniel Pask (pictured) Disability activists from Melbourne and Canberra gathered to protest the message of the film, Me Before You at a screening in Melbourne.Me Before You focusses on the lead character who becomes a quadriplegic after an accident. (Spoiler alert) The film closes with his suicide in the Dignitas death facility in Zurich. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: Few would question the need for accuracy and clear language in any public debate with such grave and possibly irreversible (for the individual) consequences as euthanasia and assisted suicide.On occasions people will get it wrong. No-one should begrudge anyone any understandable mistake made with good intent. Nevertheless, those who venture into the public arena on these matters do hold themselves up to scrutiny and possible correction. Of course, I include myself in that cohort. Continue reading

On the eve of the opening in Australia of the movie Me Before You, Melbourne based disability activist, Jax Jacki Brown has written on Junkee.com to express her concerns about the negative disability tropes exploited by the movie. She joins disability advocates across the globe criticising Me Before You through articles and demonstrations that have followed the film's opening across the English-speaking world."On the eve of the Australian release of Me Before You, the final touches are being applied to t-shirts, banners and coffin-shaped tissue boxes by many people with disabilities across Australia. The film, which has been courting controversy in the US and the UK, is set to be subject to protests here too. I am preparing to wear my t-shirt proudly to the Melbourne protest with its slogan "Disabled lives are worth living!", as I hand out flyers proclaiming "our lives are not a tragedy!"" Continue reading