Page 2900 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994

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Why would someone want to remove medical treatment? Look at what the definition of "medical treatment" is. Under the Bill it means:

(a) the carrying out of an operation;

(b) the administration of a drug; or

This Bill goes on, in the next definition, to give a definition of "palliative care". Under proposed section 5, subsection (2), it says:

This Act does not apply to palliative care ...

The definition says:

(a) the provision of reasonable medical and nursing procedures for the relief of pain, suffering and discomfort;

... ... ...

One could look back at the definitions of "medical treatment" and "pain, suffering and discomfort" and find that the carrying out of an operation, the administration of a drug or the carrying out of any other medical procedure may well fit within "palliative care", under the definition - not what it might mean in someone's head or what they thought it meant in the past, but under the definition within the legislation. I thought that was an interesting point.

It could well be that someone wants to end their life because of physical pain. At one time I did my back in weight-lifting and I considered the pain to be unbearable. That was a purely personal viewpoint. I could not sleep, I could not get into any comfortable position, and it was agony. I do not have a lot to compare it with, and I think some people that have been sick may well have. They can lead lives like that. But at the time I realised why someone might want to say, "I do not really want to confront this any more". I understood that, and I think it was useful, for that very reason.

I can understand someone at the time feeling that way. Later, of course, when the pain has gone they do not feel that way, as Mrs Grassby said. Given the power, and being of sound mind at the time, they may have made a decision, like a lot of people, that they simply can no longer confront the pain, and I understand that. But, of course, once the pain has gone, once someone has come up with another way of treating the pain and it is no longer a problem, any such thought has gone out the window.

There is a very important point in this Act. This Act talks about health professionals. It should talk about what it talks about in the definition - a doctor or a nurse. There is some debate in our society as to who would be more relevantly called health professionals. One could refer to medical professionals, professionals in sickness, and treating it with drugs and operations and so on - suppressing the symptoms. But "health", I feel, would be more relevant when you talk about health practitioners.

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