Warwick resident shares heartbreaking story in desperate plea for euthanasia support

‘Mum asked me three times to kill her’: One Warwick resident said the devastation suffered by her family at the hands of terminal illness could have been prevented by voluntary assisted dying laws.

HEARTFELT PLEA: ​One Warwick resident says watching her mum suffer for years with a terminal illness has called for euthanasia support. Picture: file

Driven by watching her mother suffer years of excruciating pain and indignity with terminal lung cancer, a Warwick resident is one of hundreds launching an impassioned plea to pass the state euthanasia bill.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk introduced the proposed voluntary assisted dying laws in Queensland Parliament earlier this week, which would extend to adults who are expected to die within 12 months from a condition they consider intolerable.

‘Intolerable’ was one of many ways the Warwick resident, who did not wish to be named for privacy reasons, described watching her mother endure pain around the clock at home and eventually a nursing home.

She said legal euthanasia could have spared her mother immense suffering, who died in 2014 at 65.

“I watched her struggle for three years and she asked me to kill her on several occasions, because the pain was that unbearable, and I told her that if I could, I would,” the woman said.

The Warwick resident said her children stopped visiting their grandmother in her final months because she was so different from their memories. Photo: Kari Bourne / Sunshine Coast Daily

“Mum’s painkillers didn’t work towards the end. That’s why she asked me, because they weren’t working and she was already on a lot.

“It’s not fair, and it’s not human. If an animal was like that, they would put it down.”

Enduring a similar struggle in her grandmother’s years-long battle with dementia, the Warwick woman said legal voluntary assisted dying would ease the pain of families, who were already losing a loved one.

She called on state politicians to visit the terminally ill to get a first-hand understanding of their pain.

“My kids got to the stage where they wouldn’t go and see Mum because they didn’t want to remember her the way she was at the end,” she said.

“Politicians need to come and visit these people for a week. The ones who say they don’t believe in it or whatever, I don’t know if they have actually seen the pain people go through.

“I think they need to investigate it and really look into it this time … the terminally ill need to have that choice to end their own suffering.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Parliament. Picture: Annette Dew / News Corp Australia

“It’s not something people take lightly. A lot of thought goes into this, and a lot of thought goes into people thinking ‘enough is enough’.”

The Warwick woman was joined by countless others in sharing support for the euthanasia bill on social media.

“Nobody should have to suffer from any form of illness. The government should not have any rights in deciding what kind of quality life anybody should have,” fellow resident Natalie Bartholomew said.

“Yes absolutely, especially when you have watched someone severely and have no quality of life. It should be that person’s choice,” Dani Jamie Crew agreed.

VAD will not be available to those with only a disability or mental illness under the reforms, and a person must be able to make their own decision at the time.

Questions remain around how the regime would be applied in regional and rural areas across the state due to the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

It is currently illegal under the Code to publish or distribute material via phone, videoconference, or electronic communication that counsels or incites committing suicide.

Ms Palaszczuk said on Tuesday she had written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison requesting the Federal Government urgently amend the law.