Showdown over right to choose as euthanasia Bill to come before the Tasmanian Parliament

JOAN Fitz-Nead AM isn’t ready to die just yet, but insists when the time comes she wants to have a choice about how her life ends.

Joan Fitz-Nead, 84, of West Hobart, has severe spinal disintegration and wants the option of voluntary assisted dying. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

JOAN Fitz-Nead AM isn’t ready to die just yet, but insists when the time comes she wants to have a choice about how her life ends.

Euthanasia will again come before the Tasmanian Parliament next week when Lower House MPs have a conscience debate on a new Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill.

The Bill, co-sponsored by Greens leader Cassy O’Connor and former Labor premier Lara Giddings, is based on legislation now operating in other jurisdictions, such as Canada.

Ms Fitz-Nead, 84, of West Hobart, will be watching the debate closely.

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Her personal and professional experiences have made her a firm believer that people in deep, incurable suffering should have the legal option to end their life.

As a nurse who has worked around the world, she’s seen her share of suffering.

Ms Fitz-Nead said any argument that death was a natural process that should be left to run its course ignored the fact that medical intervention was keeping people alive longer.

“It is a prolonged life and it’s propped up,” she said.

“Politicians really have rocks in their head if they think pain and suffering can be relieved in all cases. It can’t.”

Shadow Attorney-General Lara Giddings.

Tasmanian Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor.

An animal lover who established the much-loved West Hobart peace park, Ms Fitz-Nead is now a chronic pain sufferer herself.

Her spine is disintegrating from years of severe arthritis and she lives on pain medication.

While mobility is limited she still enjoys walking her dogs on her good days.

But she wants the option to make her own decisions about the end of her life when the pain becomes unbearable.

“When that happens I want that freedom of choice,” she said.

Wednesday’s debate will be the third time euthanasia has come before State Parliament since 2009.

The legislation has been modified since the last Bill was defeated in 2013.

Changes include clearer definitions of the circumstances which allow a person to be eligible for euthanasia.

Under the Bill a person must be at “the advanced stages of a serious, incurable and irreversible medical condition, whether caused by illness, disease or injury”.

The person must be in persistent and intolerable suffering, they must have no reasonable medical treatment options and no reasonable prospect of permanent improvement.

Dying with Dignity Tasmania president Margaret Sing said since the failed euthanasia push in 2013, several international jurisdictions had adopted assisted dying frameworks.

“There are now 16 jurisdictions that have some form of legal assisted dying,” she said.

Ms Sing said a review of the Canadian system, on which the new Tasmanian legislation is based, showed that 0.6 per cent of deaths were due to assisted dying and there was no evidence of abuse of vulnerable people.

Other Australian states are contemplating similar schemes, including New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

“This is a chance for Tasmania to show the way. It really is a historic opportunity,” Ms Sing said.

“It’s about respect for people, it’s about caring for people, and basing decisions on the evidence and not people’s fears.”