A Good Death — An Argument for Voluntary Euthanasia
A Good Death — An Argument for Voluntary Euthanasia
Dr. Rodney Syme
Book Review
PROVOKING PROSECUTION: PROVIDING NEMBUTAL
This book tells the story of how a quiet, law-abiding surgeon came to publicly break the law by providing Nembutal, a fast-acting lethal barbiturate, to suffering people who wished to die. He is the only doctor living in a country where doctor-assisted suicide is illegal, to have done so — frequently and openly and without being prosecuted. An eminent urologist, Dr Syme is held in high esteem by his medical colleagues, and was chair of the Victorian Section of the Urological Society of Australasia 1990 to1992.
His purpose in the book is to dispel the unofficial conspiracy of silence within the medical profession, and “to illuminate the black hole of misunderstanding and ignorance” by telling stories from his personal experience of assisting people with intolerable suffering to die. He wants doctor-assisted dying to be de-criminalised, and he wants people to know what happens at the end of life, so that they are better able to take control of their own dying.
The story begins in the 1970s with a terminally ill patient suffering from uncontrollable pain. “I heard her screams of anguish” he said — but could do nothing to help. This triggered his compassion and involvement in hastened death.
To begin with, like many other doctors, Dr Syme kept within the law by prescribing large doses of medication — in theory to control pain and distress, but in reality to keep the patients unconscious until they died. While it is legal for doctors to prescribe medication to prevent suffering and — if necessary — to keep one in a coma until death, no one can force a doctor to prescribe sufficient medication — and many fear prosecution if they hasten death. In addition, the doctor may lack knowledge, as Dr Syme himself did when he first started to relieve intolerable suffering in this way. He describes how in the early days he prescribed the wrong balance of analgesics and sedatives, and his patient woke screaming and delirious, causing distress to herself and to her family. As he says, “you are lucky if your doctor has the knowledge, as well as the courage and the compassion, to put you into a coma for the last few days of your life. Luck plays a large part”.
However, he became disenchanted with this long, drawn-out dying process and appalled by the anguish suffered by those who wait, often for many days, watching the one they care about die. So, despite the fact that he could be put in prison for fourteen years, he prescribed barbiturates, the drug of choice for a quick, peaceful, pain-free death. It was only when Steve Guest — a prominent journalist and government media advisor, suffering from terminal cancer of the oesophagus — asked him for help to end his life that Dr Syme decided to alter the focus of this book, and use it to actively provoke prosecution in order to try and change the law. Three years after Guest’s death, despite publicising the fact that he provided him with the barbiturates with which he ended his life, Dr Syme has not been prosecuted, nor has the coroner returned a verdict on Guest’s death.
He argues that in every case he has acted to palliate suffering, knowing that it was the patient’s intention to hasten their death. Parliament, he says, does not have the courage to legalise what he has been doing despite overwhelming public support for it. Perhaps, “it must be through our courts of justice that a defining decision will be reached. If a court accepts that physician assisted dying in appropriate circumstances is primarily an act of palliation, then the parliament may become irrelevant in finally helping those with terrible suffering to achieve a good death.”
Australia is fortunate to have such a man. Where is Britain’s Dr. Syme?
Nan Maitland, Friends at the End
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Melbourne University Press (1 May 2008)
ISBN-10: 0522855032
ISBN-13: 978-0522855036
Price: £22.75 from amazon.co.uk
Dr. Rodney Syme
Book Review
PROVOKING PROSECUTION: PROVIDING NEMBUTAL
This book tells the story of how a quiet, law-abiding surgeon came to publicly break the law by providing Nembutal, a fast-acting lethal barbiturate, to suffering people who wished to die. He is the only doctor living in a country where doctor-assisted suicide is illegal, to have done so — frequently and openly and without being prosecuted. An eminent urologist, Dr Syme is held in high esteem by his medical colleagues, and was chair of the Victorian Section of the Urological Society of Australasia 1990 to1992.
His purpose in the book is to dispel the unofficial conspiracy of silence within the medical profession, and “to illuminate the black hole of misunderstanding and ignorance” by telling stories from his personal experience of assisting people with intolerable suffering to die. He wants doctor-assisted dying to be de-criminalised, and he wants people to know what happens at the end of life, so that they are better able to take control of their own dying.
The story begins in the 1970s with a terminally ill patient suffering from uncontrollable pain. “I heard her screams of anguish” he said — but could do nothing to help. This triggered his compassion and involvement in hastened death.
To begin with, like many other doctors, Dr Syme kept within the law by prescribing large doses of medication — in theory to control pain and distress, but in reality to keep the patients unconscious until they died. While it is legal for doctors to prescribe medication to prevent suffering and — if necessary — to keep one in a coma until death, no one can force a doctor to prescribe sufficient medication — and many fear prosecution if they hasten death. In addition, the doctor may lack knowledge, as Dr Syme himself did when he first started to relieve intolerable suffering in this way. He describes how in the early days he prescribed the wrong balance of analgesics and sedatives, and his patient woke screaming and delirious, causing distress to herself and to her family. As he says, “you are lucky if your doctor has the knowledge, as well as the courage and the compassion, to put you into a coma for the last few days of your life. Luck plays a large part”.
However, he became disenchanted with this long, drawn-out dying process and appalled by the anguish suffered by those who wait, often for many days, watching the one they care about die. So, despite the fact that he could be put in prison for fourteen years, he prescribed barbiturates, the drug of choice for a quick, peaceful, pain-free death. It was only when Steve Guest — a prominent journalist and government media advisor, suffering from terminal cancer of the oesophagus — asked him for help to end his life that Dr Syme decided to alter the focus of this book, and use it to actively provoke prosecution in order to try and change the law. Three years after Guest’s death, despite publicising the fact that he provided him with the barbiturates with which he ended his life, Dr Syme has not been prosecuted, nor has the coroner returned a verdict on Guest’s death.
He argues that in every case he has acted to palliate suffering, knowing that it was the patient’s intention to hasten their death. Parliament, he says, does not have the courage to legalise what he has been doing despite overwhelming public support for it. Perhaps, “it must be through our courts of justice that a defining decision will be reached. If a court accepts that physician assisted dying in appropriate circumstances is primarily an act of palliation, then the parliament may become irrelevant in finally helping those with terrible suffering to achieve a good death.”
Australia is fortunate to have such a man. Where is Britain’s Dr. Syme?
Nan Maitland, Friends at the End
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Melbourne University Press (1 May 2008)
ISBN-10: 0522855032
ISBN-13: 978-0522855036
Price: £22.75 from amazon.co.uk