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Public Education

   

Education Via the Media

The media are the most important avenues to educating the public. DWDV maintains an active relationship with the media – radio, print and TV – in educating the public about dying with dignity issues. We issue press releases discussing key issues.

DWDV has a media writers group who are organized to respond to current issues via the Letters to the Editor section of our daily newspapers. From time to time we are able to achieve major pieces in the opinion pages of our principal newspapers.

Our spokespeople are commonly involved in real end-of-life discussions such as with Jon Faine of ABC Radio regarding Steve Guest, and re Nancy Crick’s death on current affairs radio programmes. Television news and documentaries are also utilized to present our case.
 

Web Services

DWDV works continuously to bring you this Web service to keep you informed about issues surrounding dying with dignity. FAQs can be found here...

A small team of volunteers develops and maintains the site, and it is professionally hosted in Victoria, Australia.

 

Community Presentations & Workshops

DWDV is available to talk to organisations, student groups and societies, senior citizen groups, retirement villages, RSL, Probus, etc. Contact us if you would like a DWDV representative to speak to your community group or organisation.

In organisations representing younger and older age groups, popular topics are:

  • the law controlling dying with dignity.
  • our law compared to overseas
  • what law reforms are needed

In organisations representing older groups, we find that in many cases people have a valid will and a Power of Attorney in place, but very few know about:

  • their right to refuse treatment under the Medical Treatment Act.
  • making an advanced directive/a 'living will'
  • appointing a Medical Enduring Power of Attorney.

 

Articles

DWDV and its volunteers both write and monitor articles of relevance. A collection is available here...

 

Public Forums

Public forums that DWDV has organised include:

•  

2004 Public forum at Royal Australasian College of Surgeons with international guest speakers - Professors Bernheim and Mortier from Belgium and Professor Battin from the USA.

• 

2003 Public forum at Mornington - "How you can achieve a dignified death".

• 

2002 Launch of the results of the Morgan Gallup Poll on Medically Assisted Dying.

• 

2001 'Lessons from the Oregon Death with dignity Act'. A public forum held at the Alfred Hospital with guest speaker Dr. Peter Goodwin from Oregon.

• 

1999 In recognition of the Year of the Older Person, DWDV organised a public forum at the Alfred Hospital on the Medical Treatment Act.

• 

1996 DWDV organised a public forum in conjunction with the 11th International Conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, with national and international speakers.

• 

1994 On the occasion of DWDV's 20th anniversary - a forum entitled "A Good Death - our Final Choice" was organised at the Royal Australian College of Surgeons - guest speaker Dr. Gerrit Kimsma (Dutch GP).

• 

1993 Launch of DWDV's model Bill for Medically Assisted Suicide.

 

Students

Information for students studying the issue of physician assisted dying can be found here...

 

Public Messages

Get Adobe Acrobat (PDF) copies of our public messages below. These messages may also appear on our splash page.

 

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Steve Guest Day 2007 Rally Poster

847Kb

1  

What do these things have in common?

  182Kb

Victoria: a place or an era?

158Kb

Experts agree: dying with dignity is vital

91Kb

4

5,184,000 excruciating seconds

122Kb

5

When the law is an ass

127Kb

6

Being dictated to by a minority?

74Kb

7

Croak on your own terms

48Kb

 

If you don't have Acrobat Reader on your computer, you can get it for free here...

 

Newsletter

 

You can also keep informed with the help of our DWDV Newsletters. An archive of our newsletters can be found here...

 

 

 

 

Dr Rodney Syme speaks
with 3CR's Helen Lobato about dying with dignity
and the society
on 19th May 2006

 

WMA 4.9Mb
20'40"  MP3  4.9Mb

 

 

 


 

 

 

A list of world euthanasia conferences held is available here...

 

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