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Warning: the story is about suicide and euthanasia.
Vicki Walsh. Source: Checkpoint / RNZ
A woman dying of cancer is urging New Zealanders to “unplug” the proposed euthanasia law, saying people could be forced to die prematurely.
The public will be asked to vote yes or no on the End of Life Election Law, in a referendum on Election Day.
The law would allow terminally ill people who are given six months or less to live and who are experiencing unbearable suffering the option of dying with medical assistance.
Vicki Walsh, now 53, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in June 2011.
Aggressive brain cancer is nicknamed the “Terminator” and sufferers usually die within 14 months of diagnosis.
But nine years later, Vicki still lives near Palmerston North with her husband and two grown children.
He has been taking the drug Avastin, which has cost him $ 24,000, and the mass in his brain has been cut in half.
“They always told me there was nothing more to do,” he said. “So in eight years, nine years, things have changed, so I had another surgery, I had radiation, and now we are getting this drug that we pay for.”
But there was a moment after her diagnosis when she felt helpless and depressed.
He said he saw people fighting the same disease abroad choose euthanasia and felt he should take his own life.
“I actually felt a little bit cowardly, I was looking at my husband and we were trying to keep life normal and I had a little stroke and it ended up really, really big and I felt like this is it for me.” she said.
“It had been several weeks, it wasn’t just an overnight thing, and I thought, if this is how it’s going to be, I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
But Vicki changed her mind at the last minute.
Had he done so, he said he would have missed the opportunity to see his grandchildren grow up.
“If they had asked me if I want to live like now, I would have seen my life 15 years ago as if I don’t have much quality of life now,” he said. “I love my life, you know, I love my life.”
Vicki said that she did not want to see people suffer, but felt that the Law of choosing the end of life was not strict.
The law includes a provision that allows doctors to stop the process if they believe that coercion is being exercised.
But Vicki’s biggest fear is that people feel pressured to end their lives sooner than necessary.
“The coercion thing is one of the biggest concerns for me about this bill, people say it would not happen, well, we already have a problem of elder abuse in this country,” he said.
“So I already know how I feel, like my family doesn’t make me feel like a burden, but I also feel like a burden sometimes and I’m not getting that pressure.”
rnz.co.nz
