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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 495 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

My mother, who died last year, was a different kettle of fish. She did not keep her mental faculties right up to the date of her death. For, I suppose, the last two years of her life she had fairly well advanced Alzheimer's disease and a number of other conditions, and mentally she certainly was not the formidable lady she was up until two years before she died. I can recall her decision-making processes in those 12 months leading up to her last nine to 10 months on this earth. Superficially, she could make decisions and she could have the same conversations; but, really, I think you would have to query whether she was able to actually appreciate something. Medically, when the certificate of death came in, I think it was quite painfully obvious that she would not have been, even though to all intents and purposes she was compos mentis and was able to make decisions. Had she been in great pain, I wonder whether she could have made a proper decision when faced with this situation. Perhaps that is something that might well be a loophole in this type of legislation.

In her last seven months, when she rapidly deteriorated physically, I do not think she had too much of a quality of life. I used to go there and wheel her around in the wheelchair. I used to take her out into the sun from Kankinya Nursing Home, but you could not have the same conversation. She was very frail and very thin. Still, there was that quality of life there. She still appreciated it the day she died. She vaguely knew, I think, that she was going off on a picnic. That is where she died and I think she died happy. I wonder whether someone in her situation, at some stage in those two years when she could make a decision, might have raised one of the legal problems associated with this Bill that several other members have referred to. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have looked at a number of documents. There is one document from the lady who did the survey of nurses. On page 3 she refers to ACT nurses and a majority basically were in favour of euthanasia in controlled circumstances. She surveyed various categories of nurses and stated:

The ACT nurses' attitudes were found to be significantly related to various nurse characteristics (age, religion, experience with the terminally ill, area of speciality, years in the profession and interest in the euthanasia debate). Support for a change in the law to allow AVE -

active voluntary euthanasia -

tended to be lower for older nurses, nurses of the Catholic religion, nurses with increased experience caring for the terminally ill, nurses working in the areas of palliative care, nurses working longer in the profession of nursing and nurses who have taken a lot of interest in the euthanasia debate. However, the only subgroup of nurses who did not have a majority in favour of AVE was that of nurses working in palliative care. There were no gender differences in attitudes.

That is interesting. Overall, apart from those in palliative care - that in itself is a very telling point, I think - of nurses in those other areas dealing with terminally ill patients, nurses working longer in the profession, and nurses who actually had a lot of interest in the euthanasia debate, those in favour narrowed much more. There were more nurses against than there were nurses who were not in those categories. Perhaps that in itself is a telling point.

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