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Retired Methodist Minister Dave Mullan will personally present his submission on assisted dying to Parliament.
The controversial issue of ‘assisted dying” is something Dave Mullan of Red Beach has given a lot of thought to over the years, as it has been very close to home in both his professional and personal life.
This puts him in a prime position to comment on the government’s investigation into the issue – culminating in the submission he made to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health just before Christmas.
During more than 35 years as a Methodist minister, Dave witnessed many end of life struggles, ministering to people whose lives, he says, were reduced to suffering and “waiting, hoping and praying to die”.
In Dunedin he managed a Methodist Mission that had about 80 hospital and resthome patients, and he says he was aware that the doctor and senior nurses at times “made decisions that affected people’s lives”.
This, he feels was a sign of their compassion.
His views on the need to legalise assisted dying were brought into sharper focus when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, 14 years ago. As well as blogging extensively on the topic, the 80-year-old recently made a submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, which is considering the issue of voluntary euthanasia in NZ.
The Health Select Committee is tasked with looking at all aspects of the issue, including the social, legal, medical, cultural, financial, ethical, and philosophical implications.
Dave’s submission concludes that: “patients suffering untreatable and unbearable conditions should have the freedom to ask for the means to end unendurable lives and also the freedom to use it – or not use it.”
While he understands the responsibility that voluntary euthanasia puts on doctors he says it could become a specialist area for health professionals. “It’s a different level of understanding of the doctors’ oath to ‘do no harm’,” Dave says. “Sometimes it is harming a person to keep them alive. In reality, some doctors already ‘play God’ in certain situations.”
Despite surgery and various drug regimes, Dave’s cancer has spread and as well as wishing for choice about the end of his life, he wishes to spare his family the worst aspects of caring for him should he be severely incapacitated.
He says he is greatly impressed by the hospice movement, its remarkable efforts in palliative care and quest to provide dignity and comfort in the last days of life. However, he says funding of hospices is inadequate.
“I’m asking the government to put a bridge there so there is a choice,” he says. “If it’s going to happen to me, I want the right to have two doctors talk to me. Then I would get my family together, have a big party and a farewell.”
Submissions to the parliamentary select committee closed on February 1. However, Dave is happy for anyone to contact him on colcom.press@clear.net.nz
