Australia: ‘Elderly people are ending their lives because of poor healthcare’

Vulnerable people in Australia are choosing euthanasia due to long waiting times to access necessary care or treatment.

The stories have emerged at a time when MPs are considering legalising assisted suicide in the UK, with a vote in favour passed by 330 votes to 275 last month.

Prior to the vote, Health Secretary Wes Streeting had said he would not support Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill because the NHS is not able to offer adequate palliative care to give people “the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available”.

Burden

Speaking on Australian radio station 2GB Sydney, caller Mark explained the “heartbreaking” situation of how his mum Ellen suffered from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and opted for euthanasia after experiencing delays in receiving the necessary home care package.

Mark explained: “Her pride wouldn’t allow any of her boys to take care of her or to bathe her so she got approved for the assisted dying”.

She went ahead with the decision to have her life ended, with Mark telling the station: “She passed while waiting for the upgraded package.”

86-year-old Cyril Tooze fell at home and was admitted to hospital – he suffered from lung and heart illness and was told he would have to wait nine months for a care package, even though he had no family to care for him in the meantime. He chose euthanasia after being told a backlog would extend the waiting time further.

Terrible omen

Right To Life UK’s Catherine Robinson said: “These awful stories of elderly people being euthanised because they are facing an extended wait for home care are a terrible omen of what we can expect in England and Wales should assisted suicide be legalized.”

She added: “The assisted dying regime in Australia is not the utopia it is sometimes made out to be”, explaining that vulnerable people “are ending their lives because of poor healthcare”.

During the recent debate in Westminster on assisted suicide, MP Danny Kruger said self-coercion is a “bigger danger” than external coercion, and yet the Bill “has nothing to say on that.

“Internal pressure is absolutely fine. If you feel worthless or a burden to others, if the NHS will not offer you the treatment you need, if the local authority will not make the adjustments you need to your home, if you have to wait too long for a hospital appointment, or if you want to die because you think the system has failed you, that is absolutely fine”.

‘Protection’

MP Diane Abbott stated during last month’s debate: “If the Bill passes, we will have the NHS as a 100% funded suicide service, but palliative care will be funded only at 30% at best.”

She also said: “Robust safeguards for the sick and dying are vital to protect them from predatory relatives, to protect them from the state and, above all, to protect them from themselves.

“There will be those who say to themselves that they do not want to be a burden; I can imagine myself saying that in particular circumstances. Others will worry about assets they had hoped to leave for their grandchildren being eroded by the cost of care.

“There will even be a handful who will think they should not be taking up a hospital bed.”

https://righttolife.org.uk/news/vulnerable-australians-resort-to-euthanasia-rather-than-face-long-delays-to-receive-healthcare

https://www.2gb.com/exclusive-woman-chooses-euthanasia-after-home-care-delays/

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-11-29/debates/796D6D96-3FCB-4B39-BD89-67B2B61086E6/TerminallyIllAdults(EndOfLife)Bill#:~:text=The%20bigger%20danger%20is%20not%20other%20people%20pressuring%20someone%20to%20do%20this%3B%20it%20is%20that%20they%20pressure%20themselves

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14077349/Heartbreaking-update-terminally-ill-Cyril-Tooze-waiting-months-home-care.html