Support for Miklos Somogyi's Right To Die

The following letters were received by The Age, Melbourne, following the publication of John Elder's article on Miklos Somogyi and his struggle with the consequences of inoperable spinal cancer.

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Robbed of choice

I'D LIKE to make comment about John Elder's article ''The unbearable agony of being'' (2/8). I will eventually face death from prostate cancer down the road of life.

I have given a lot of thought to how I am going to have to extinguish my own life as we here in Australia have no medically assisted death legislation. I find it unfathomably unbelievable that a terminally ill person does not have any rights to his/her own passing.

I know what I am going to do to end my life when I feel that I've had enough. I just hope that it works. My greatest fear is that something will happen to me, such as having a stroke, which will make it impossible for me to act and (so I'll be) stuck with palliative care.

The parliamentarians who didn't support the doctor-assisted death legislation should be forced to wander through the cancer wards, which hold prisoner the terminally ill.

I find this whole palliative care issue most disturbing and find that all it does is prolong the agony of it all.

SUMNER BERG, Beechworth

CONGRATULATIONS on publishing the moving story of Dr Miklos Somogyi. I wish to express my concern that this is one case where palliative care cannot control the patient's pain. Legalised euthanasia must become law in Australia.

Having spent a lifetime in the Victorian police force witnessing the results of numerous suicides committed in horrible ways by those suffering intolerable pain, I support appropriate legislation to correct this anomaly.

GEOFF TULLOCH, Eltham

THE article by John Elder on the ordeal suffered by Dr Miklos Somogyi once again raises the topic of the refusal of our governments state and federal to legislate to allow people suffering from terminal illness to seek medical advice to enable them to maintain control over the final stage of their lives, and to die with dignity. Palliative care is as good as it can be with current knowledge and resources, but cannot ease the pain and distress suffered by some, such as Dr Somogyi. Politicians will only take action for change if enough voters voice their reasons for wanting change. I simply want to add one more voice to the growing number who consider that the time is overdue for a properly constructed and supervised Right to Die act to be passed.

JEREMY BARRETT, Malmsbury

YOUR article shows how unfair it is for politicians to play God and decide to take away, from an obviously intelligent and rational person, the decision to end one's life. It's really nobody else's business, but their own.

DIETMAR BRISKER, Huntingdale

AS A community we are rightly outraged when two irresponsible radio presenters rob a young girl of her dignity. Indeed few events in recent memory have caused such strongly worded responses both in opinion pieces and in letters to the editor. Yet in this case the issue of consent is problematic since the girl's mother actively participated.

The community has also registered strong repugnance about other practices that rob people of their dignity and humanity - the treatment of refugees and the treatment of suspected terrorists, for example. A community that fails to recognise the inherent worth of each person and to respect their dignity is a community that is morally debased.

The examples may be extended to that reported in ''The unbearable agony of being''. This case also presents a picture of an individual robbed of his dignity. Loss of dignity and humanity is forced on to many individuals because our state politicians failed to pass rational laws with regard to euthanasia. And here there is no equivocation about consent.

Many people want physician-assisted dying as an option in their end of life choices and 80 per cent of the community supports them in this wish. Members of the Victorian Parliament, to their shame, defied public opinion and moral rationality in this matter and have condemned many to a grave loss of dignity at the end of their lives. It is a matter that should be promptly referred to the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

RALPH BLUNDEN, Hawthorn

JOHN Elder's story affected me - in part because I'm 80.

Last month I discovered that back in 1936, when he was aged 71, King George V was very ill with lung problems. His doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn, without medical consultation or approval from Queen Mary or the future kings Edward VIII and George VI, decided to assist him in dying by injecting a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine. This only became public in 1986 when, after 50 years, Dawson's diary was opened. Dawson said his action was ''a facet of euthanasia or so-called mercy killing''.

Had I known from the age of seven to 57 that my king had been lethally injected by his physician I'm sure that I would not have waited until now, when I can expect health problems - hopefully not as severe as Miklos' - to support any future legislation allowing for a dignified death.

KEN NEWTON, Nunawading

MIKLOS Somogyi is far from the only dying person to have written to the Premier in support of the Physician Assisted Dying (PAD) bill. The Premier claimed the matter was one for MPs' consciences. However, when PAD could have been referred to a committee for public comment (and 80 per cent of the public support it), he forced his party to vote as a bloc to prevent this.. With the abortion bill, John Brumby protected the rights of women to control their bodies. He should do the same for the dying.

JANINE TRUTER, The Basin