The pharmacist will also explain how to use it. “It’s hard to take;it requires mixing and it’s not straightforward,” says Dr Wade Stedman,NSW Health’s Voluntary Assisted Dying clinical lead. Experience from other jurisdictions shows about a third of the people who have the medication at home never use it,he said.
“The patients find it a security blanket,it’s nice to have the control,or they are really sick,” says Stedman. Patients can take the medication themselves orally or ask to have it administered by a doctor intravenously. It’s not suicide under the law.
Administering fatal medicine is a frontier for doctors,too,even if they have put themselves forward for the task by volunteering for training.
“Some might want to be involved in the first assessment and providing information;those same practitioners might not want to be the administering practitioner,” says Stedman. “Others might be comfortable being involved in the whole journey.”
Doctors have been invited to a “community of practice”,in which they can share their stories and support each other.
Stedman will go into the office at 6am on Tuesday to be on hand when the portal opens. He is expecting a large number of people to apply. “There’s already practitioners who have told us that there are patients who’ve asked them for it,and they’re waiting,” he said.
“[Support groups] Dying with Dignity and Go Gentle have also said there are people they’re aware of who are ready to start the process.”
In country NSW,a former army nurse,who wants to be known only by her first name,Judith,because her town is small and conservative,will also lodge her application next week. She has bladder cancer and was “happy and excited” about the new laws.
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“I have a GP who’s VAD on-board,I’m very blessed and lucky,but it’s been a gruelling journey to come[back] to a Bible belt,conservative,pro-life[town],” she said. “My dying process is too important to be bullied by these sorts of people.
“I knew what my plans for myself were,a long time ago. It’s my body,it’s my life,it’s my death,I’ll choose from now on.”
Janet Cohen is also planning to access assisted dying at some point. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. Treatment has given her a good quality of life,but the disease is terminal,and progressing.
She has been given permission to access assisted dying in Switzerland and was relieved when NSW flagged its laws. “I believe in self-determination,and people having the agency,the control over their life to be able to have a good death,” she said.
For Michael Hooper,farewelling his mother will be difficult,but he will support her choices. “It’s a bit devastating,it’s losing my mum,” he said. “Ultimately,I just want her suffering to come to a conclusion.”
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