[ad_1]
John Bonning’s mother-in-law was in such agony that even the sheets became an unbearable weight on her body.
A recent patient, a former colleague, now skeletal after losing 40 kilograms to cancer, and too wasted to get back up after a fall.
Waikato Hospital’s main ER doctor has suffered greatly.
Bonning, who holds a number of prominent medical positions, wants people to know that not all doctors are against euthanasia. She will vote yes in the next referendum.
READ MORE:
* Euthanasia referendum: the arguments for and against the legalization of assisted death
* Canadian researchers find that the majority of those who chose euthanasia were receiving palliative care
* Debate on euthanasia: Is there dignity in death or palliative care kill?
But hospice doctor Lara Hoskins is speaking out against it.
A patient repeatedly begged him to help her die, only to thank him weeks later for keeping her alive, for giving her more time with the family.
Both Bonning and Hoskins said Stuff their views on the end of life election bill do not represent the medical organizations of which they are a part or their employer, Waikato DHB.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Waikato DHB Emergency Medicine Specialist Dr. John Bonning personally wants euthanasia to be legal to avoid unnecessary suffering.
It is their personal opinion, they say, informed by medical experience.
Vote for Euthanasia – John Bonning
Bonning’s thirty years of treating near-death patients, combined with personal family experience, have convinced him that voluntary assisted death should be offered to patients.
Palliative care is absolutely necessary and does a wonderful job in New Zealand, he said.
But sometimes medicine reaches a point where it cannot improve the quality of life.
Suffering becomes “a bitter waiting game” for patients, family members and even doctors like him.
“With cancer, fluid can build up in the lungs and fluid build up in the abdomen, and you need repeated procedures to drain it because it feels like you are choking.
“You can bleed, you can have a lump in your chest or throat and you can’t swallow, you can’t eat, you can’t drink.”
People know they have weeks or days to live, and the question is “what will kill me?” Bonning said.
One of his colleagues, Australian ER doctor Colin Clarke, died of lung cancer and he knew the agony he would face.
“He waited, he waited and he waited. And she suffered. “
It would be a failure of the medical profession not to give people a choice when they have reached this point.
“Health is about quality, not necessarily quantity of life.”
Bonning’s two mothers-in-law faced terminal cancer, his father had heart failure and his sister had multiple sclerosis; all suffered difficult falls to death.
He disagrees with the New Zealand Medical Association’s statement against euthanasia, which includes that it goes against the Geneva Conventions on Human Rights and disregards the dignity of patients.
He said the law is hermetic and the strictest in the world. The checks and balances are there, including that the patient must be in unbearable suffering, irreversibly deteriorating, and have a six-month diagnosis.
“The Dutch, Belgium, Canada, Victoria in Australia, Luxembourg, Switzerland there are no stories of slippery slopes up to a lot of marginalized people who cannot afford medical care that they feel like a burden.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Waikato DHB hospice specialist Dr. Lara Hoskins does not believe in euthanasia because it puts pressure on people to die.
Vote Against Euthanasia – Lara Hoskins
But palliative care doctor Lara Hoskins said she constantly sees patients who feel like a burden when they shouldn’t have to.
Laws are there to protect people, Hoskins said, and other people inevitably influence patient decisions.
“Some patients continue chemotherapy so as not to disappoint their oncologist, even when the oncologist doesn’t care.
“There are patients who feel a burden for their family member: they have seen their daughter leave work, have financial problems, have emotional problems, physically struggle to take care of them.”
Hoskins, who has treated dying patients for more than 10 years, said the patients were determined to die, only to change their minds.
A man made a pact with a friend to commit suicide once he reached the hospice point. Instead, he established close relationships at the hospice and was able to enjoy the end of his life, including gardening there.
Hoskins believes that the law is too broad and is not directed solely at those who are at the end of their lives.
Excruciating suffering is defined by the patient’s experience, so it doesn’t rule out mental illness, he said.
“Depression and anxiety are particularly common in people with advanced illnesses and, sadly, are often overlooked. When we tackle those things, it improves the will to live.
