Bulletin 11: Misinformation about Effect of PAD on Youth

19th May 2008

In a recent bulletin to Members of Parliament, SuicideNo claimed that legalising Physician Assisted Dying (PAD) will set a bad example for young people, prompting them to suicide. This claim is irrational and false.

• A physician assisted death is a private matter between a sufferer and their doctor: it is subject to significant confidentiality requirements and is not made public. Therefore, youth would not be aware that any individual case of PAD was in effect.
• A rigorous process (not a whim) involving multiple experienced doctors ensures that the request for PAD assistance is rational: in other words in response to intolerable suffering that is permanent and uncorrectable. The approach provides a community message of consultation, consideration and responsibility, not a message of gratuitous action.
• The Coroner tables a report to Parliament each year giving summarised statistics of physician assisted deaths. This report is not the kind of information that an at-risk youth will be looking for. Rather, an at-risk youth would be looking for "how to" information, which the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008 does not place in the public domain.

While it is admirable to hold concern for possible youth suicides, claiming that youth suicide will be precipitated by the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008 simply holds no merit whatever. In fact, if a depressed young person were to present themselves to a doctor for assistance to die, they would instead be provided with medication and counselling, the appropriate response to such a request.