ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY RELEASE
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
26 Jun 2012
Voluntary euthanasia not only requires the will and judgment of the patient but the will and judgement of the doctor who must decide whether they agree with the patient, and that the patient would be better off dead.
"If the doctor can make such a judgement of a competent patient, then the doctor can equally make such a judgment in the case of the incompetent patient," Dr Bernadette Tobin, Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent's Hospital and Reader in Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) warned in her keynote address last week on Ethics and Euthanasia.
The third in ACU's landmark Voice Speaker series, Dr Tobin pointed out that if a person was genuinely exercising autonomy, and not merely yielding to impulse or compulsion, in choosing to kill themselves or to be deliberately killed, they would proceed on the basis that either human life in certain conditions or circumstances retained no intrinsic value or dignity and/or the world be a better place if one's life were intentionally terminated.
"Both judgements are mistaken," she said and added that such judgments held grave implications for the weak and disabled.
"Every human being is equal precisely in having a human life which is our common humanity, our personhood, our dignity, our intrinsic value. In refusing to violate that life, one respects the human person in the most fundamental and indispensible way," she explained.
This was no less true with regard to the life of a person trapped in an irreversible coma or an irreversibly unresponsive state, Dr Tobin insisted and said the respect for all human persons required that no choice be made to violate that value by terminating that life.
While many advocates of euthanasia claim assisted suicide should only be available on a voluntary basis, mercy killing as it is frequently known, cannot be limited by one's own particular identity and circumstances.
"The very reasoning that leads us to accept euthanasia when it is voluntary commits us to accepting it when it is non-voluntary," Dr Tobin cautioned and explained that the common feature was the judgement that "death may be a benefit."
Advocates of euthanasia underestimated the pressure legalisation of assisted suicide would place on others who would feel compelled to "avail themselves of the practice."
"People should not be made to feel they are a burden because they are dependent on others," Dr Tobin said and dismissed British philosopher and committed euthanasia advocate, Baroness Mary Warnock who speaks of people having "a duty to die" and believes those with dementia who have become "a burden to their family or the state" should be among those to receive permission if they elect to die.
"Many are already suffering enough and don't need someone, with the privileged background of Baroness Warnock, breathing down their neck and telling them they shouldn't really be here," Dr Tobin said.
Discussing advances in palliative care and Australia's "serious if not adequate effort to improve the care of people in pain," Dr Tobin admitted that not all people die well.
"Some die badly in pain or discomfort, without the benefits of palliative medicine, lonely, uncared for, with unresolved hostility or resentment to a family member or friend, feeling a burden on others, fearful their life amounted to nothing much, that they could have lived it better," she said and called for doctors to be trained to relieve pain "at least as well as are vets!"
But even in pain and discomfort, few with terminal illnesses opt for "assisted suicide," Dr Tobin said and quoted intensive care specialist at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital, Dr Peter Saul who regards euthanasia as nothing more than a side show.
Pointing out that in nations such as the Netherlands where assisted suicide has been legalised, only 0.5% want to be given poisonous overdose, Dr Saul says: "I'm more interested in the 99.5% who want to die well. Let's deprive euthanasia of its oxygen."
After Dr Tobin delivered her keynote address, a panel discussion took place between euthanasia advocate, Dr Philip Nitchske, Professor Margaret O'Connor, the Vivian Bullwinkel Chair in Palliative Nursing at Monash University, Melbourne and Father Frank Brennan, human rights champion and Professor of Law at ACU's Public Policy Institute.
Designed to create public debate on important issues, ACU's quarterly Voice Speaker Series launched in October 2011 with a discussion on the Ethics of War. In March this year the discussion was Refugees and Our Ethical Obligations followed by last week's address and discussion on Ethics and Euthanasia. Details of each in the series can be accessed by logging on to www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/research/about_us/news_and_events/acuvoice_speaker_series/
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
26 Jun 2012
People must not be made to feel a burden
or that they have a duty to die
or that they have a duty to die
"If the doctor can make such a judgement of a competent patient, then the doctor can equally make such a judgment in the case of the incompetent patient," Dr Bernadette Tobin, Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent's Hospital and Reader in Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) warned in her keynote address last week on Ethics and Euthanasia.
The third in ACU's landmark Voice Speaker series, Dr Tobin pointed out that if a person was genuinely exercising autonomy, and not merely yielding to impulse or compulsion, in choosing to kill themselves or to be deliberately killed, they would proceed on the basis that either human life in certain conditions or circumstances retained no intrinsic value or dignity and/or the world be a better place if one's life were intentionally terminated.
"Both judgements are mistaken," she said and added that such judgments held grave implications for the weak and disabled.
Dr Bernadette Tobin
This was no less true with regard to the life of a person trapped in an irreversible coma or an irreversibly unresponsive state, Dr Tobin insisted and said the respect for all human persons required that no choice be made to violate that value by terminating that life.
While many advocates of euthanasia claim assisted suicide should only be available on a voluntary basis, mercy killing as it is frequently known, cannot be limited by one's own particular identity and circumstances.
"The very reasoning that leads us to accept euthanasia when it is voluntary commits us to accepting it when it is non-voluntary," Dr Tobin cautioned and explained that the common feature was the judgement that "death may be a benefit."
Advocates of euthanasia underestimated the pressure legalisation of assisted suicide would place on others who would feel compelled to "avail themselves of the practice."
Dr Peter Saul, intensive care
specialist calls euthanasia
a side show and says
he is more interested in
the 95.5% who want to live
specialist calls euthanasia
a side show and says
he is more interested in
the 95.5% who want to live
"Many are already suffering enough and don't need someone, with the privileged background of Baroness Warnock, breathing down their neck and telling them they shouldn't really be here," Dr Tobin said.
Discussing advances in palliative care and Australia's "serious if not adequate effort to improve the care of people in pain," Dr Tobin admitted that not all people die well.
"Some die badly in pain or discomfort, without the benefits of palliative medicine, lonely, uncared for, with unresolved hostility or resentment to a family member or friend, feeling a burden on others, fearful their life amounted to nothing much, that they could have lived it better," she said and called for doctors to be trained to relieve pain "at least as well as are vets!"
But even in pain and discomfort, few with terminal illnesses opt for "assisted suicide," Dr Tobin said and quoted intensive care specialist at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital, Dr Peter Saul who regards euthanasia as nothing more than a side show.
Intrinsic value and dignity in every human life
After Dr Tobin delivered her keynote address, a panel discussion took place between euthanasia advocate, Dr Philip Nitchske, Professor Margaret O'Connor, the Vivian Bullwinkel Chair in Palliative Nursing at Monash University, Melbourne and Father Frank Brennan, human rights champion and Professor of Law at ACU's Public Policy Institute.
Designed to create public debate on important issues, ACU's quarterly Voice Speaker Series launched in October 2011 with a discussion on the Ethics of War. In March this year the discussion was Refugees and Our Ethical Obligations followed by last week's address and discussion on Ethics and Euthanasia. Details of each in the series can be accessed by logging on to www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/research/about_us/news_and_events/acuvoice_speaker_series/
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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