The Fellows' plans seemed to be of a high degree of lethality. Saying, "I'll commit suicide if my AFL team doesn't win on Saturday," is a real suicide threat, but of extremely low lethality - that is, it is highly unlikely to be carried out. Researchers studying suicide prevention teach that all suicide threats should be treated as real, but they have different degrees of lethality. Why did the audience not react to the Fellows' suicide plan, and then react so overwhelmingly to the "bullshit" comment? Was it because the audience saw the Fellows' plan as unsurprising and reasonable? Or were they stunned by the stark publication of a truly shocking plan? From where I was sitting, you could have heard a pin drop. The Fellows' and Gemmell's approaches extend far beyond the claim of pro-euthanasia advocates that assisted suicide and euthanasia will be restricted to terminally ill people, with intractable suffering, who are in the last weeks or days of life. Alternative interventions to assisted suicide for pain and grief were not considered. Nikki did not comment on the Fellows's plan. She pleaded that those who wanted to end their lives by suicide should be able to have assistance in doing so, in order to avoid a botched suicide attempt or a "lonely death" such as her mother, who committed suicide, experienced. My fellow Q&A panellist Nikki Gemmell passionately explained that in her research for her book After, she found an "epidemic" of pain and grief among elderly people. In effect, the Fellows were proposing that when people feel that they have had what the Dutch call a "completed life" or are "tired of life," they should be allowed to end their lives. Delivery will be by unconventional means." Nitschke called the prize a "safety net" for the Fellows. Certainly, it subsequently attracted a great deal of media coverage and even won the Fellows a prize.Įxit International boss and former medical doctor, Philip Nitschke, awarded them his "Peaceful Pill Prize" claiming their comments were a "significant contribution to the Australian Euthanasia debate." Nitschke confirmed the couple are members of his Exit International organisation and said the prize is "two redeemable vouchers for 12gm packages of pure sodium pentobarbital (nembutal)." But, he clarified, "as possession of this drug in Australia is illegal, the details of the delivery of the prize will be kept confidential. Tony Jones characterized the "bullshit" comment as "refreshing," which is difficult to interpret other than as an endorsement of it. It was potent, bracing television, and a stray expletive was the least confronting thing about it." I agree. One television critic wrote, "It may have been Q&A's most succinct contribution ever. After a considerable pause, she added, "Tell it as it is." has to do with the community." Mrs Fellows's one word response was, "Bullshit." The audience instantly erupted in what seemed to be affirmative laughter. Mrs Fellows then objected to my using the word "killing" to describe assisted suicide and euthanasia and argued that because she and Ron would each take their own life, "that is definitely the wrong word to be using." I replied: "But it is still killing yourself. He added that their children had accepted their decision, although reluctantly.Ī short while later, Jones asked Patricia Fellows whether Ron was also speaking for her. And if the time comes where we can't take care of ourselves, we will look for some form of euthanasia." "We have decided that we will not go in to any kind of aged care facility. When called on by host Tony Jones, Mr Fellows said: Ninety-year-old Ron Fellows, along with his eighty-one-year-old wife Patricia, were seated in the front row of the audience. A few weeks ago, I was invited to be a panellist to discuss assisted suicide and euthanasia. ĪBC's Q&A is a well-known, nationally televised, live-to-air program. Margaret Somerville is Professor of Bioethics in the School of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
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