Cancer sufferer Philip Ferrarotto chose to use Victoria’s assisted dying laws. Cecily Oliver lived in SA – and died in pain

At the end, Cecily Oliver lay writhing in her bed, unable to speak from pain. Philip Ferrarotto went listening to Dean Martin, sipping a whiskey – their deaths decided solely by where they lived.

“Thank you for your bravery in administering the medication for me today so that I can finally be at peace,” says Philip Ferrarotto.

It’s a letter by the 70-year-old to his oncologist. Mr Ferrarotto dictated it two days before he died, in October 2019, using Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws, which had come into effect earlier that year.

On Wednesday, SA’s parliament will consider a third reading of its own VAD laws.

Mr Ferrarotto’s daughter Katie Harley, 43, recounts her father died in his home, embraced by his wife and surrounded by family. She said he closed his eyes listening to his favourite Dean Martin tunes after a final sip of whiskey.

Philip Ferrarotto with his first grandchild Thomas in 2012. Picture: Supplied

Riddled with cancer most of his life, he died within 30 seconds of being administered medication intravenously.

His letter from the grave is being shared by Ms Harley from Melbourne, so SA MPs understand how her father – a man who was so full of life and fought many cancers to survive it against odds – was so thankful laws had passed in time for him to choose when and how he could say goodbye.

Philip Ferrarotto and daughter Katie Harley during Christmas celebrations 2017. Picture: Supplied

A photo of Alan and Cecily Oliver on their wedding day in 1992. Picture: Keryn Stevens

VAD is currently illegal in South Australia, where 88-year-old Cecily Oliver – earlier this year – was constantly writhing, never quite able to find a comfortable position to rest in the bedridden weeks before her death.

Weighing less than 30kg, the “elegant lady” could not eat, drink or speak from the pain, the cancer, and the medication that was supposed to relieve her. Her family says the suffering on her face was still visible days after at her funeral in April.

“I contemplated driving her to Victoria,” said her husband Alan Oliver, 85, from Normanville. “But she was too frail to get in the car and she would not have made the journey – it would have been too uncomfortable for her.

“Almost every day she would say, I really want to die and I am pissed off that I can’t. But her heart was so strong – it just wouldn’t stop and her pain was beyond the capacity of the morphine … It was so bloody horrible.”

Alan Oliver’s wife Cecily died from cancer in April this year in Normanville. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Mr Ferrarotto and Mrs Oliver’s deaths are examples of how laws dictating choice of dying are so different in SA from nearby Victoria, and soon Western Australia, Tasmania and possibly Queensland.

More than 224 Victorians have died through VAD in the first 18 months since their state introduced laws in 2019.

On Wednesday, the 17th Bill to legalise VAD in SA faces its final hurdle – a third vote from MPs. An Advertiser poll of MPs suggests the Bill could pass.

If approved it would make SA the fourth state to support such laws and with more safeguards than any Bill before it.

Opponents to the Bill say doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals and institutions practising best-practice healthcare and end-of-life care should not be forced to act against their ethical standards. An amendment to this effect has been proposed by Liberal MP Steve Murray.

Originally published as Cancer sufferer Philip Ferrarotto chose to use Victoria’s assisted dying laws. Cecily Oliver lived in SA – and died in pain