Smart Martha Monday

Last week, my goal was to write a letter to the South Australian MP's against the current euthanasia bill that is before SA parliament.

Here is my letter that I have written:

Dear ,

I am writing to ask you to vote against the current euthanasia bill that is before SA parliament.

I am very concerned about this bill for a couple of reasons.

The first reason this bill concerns me is it is not only for terminally ill patients, but for those with chronic illnesses too.

Two of my children, have type 1 diabetes. This is a chronic illness. There is no getting it mildly or getting over it. It is something that my boys live with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every day I have to balance what insulin to give both my boys with their food intake. We also need to factor in any exercise they do. Often they will have unexplained high sugars or low sugars even though I have given them the insulin they need for their food intake. We have to keep a constant eye on what they blood sugar level is and often check them both through the night. My boys both have a lot to deal with in their everyday life.

If the euthanasia bill is passed, it may lead to both my boys having to justify to someone one day why their lives are worth living in spite of having type 1 diabetes. I really don’t think they should ever be put into this position. From what I have read in the bill, the bill is not for someone to choose to end their life, it is to protect the doctor that decides it is reasonable to end someone else’s life.

This leads me to my second concern about the current bill.

My second concern about this bill is the vague wording that it has.

Words like reasonable and good quality of life are just too vague.

Just what is reasonable when it come to deciding to end someone’s life or to keep it? Is it reasonable to decide that someone has poor control over their blood sugar levels and therefore their life is not worth living?

Is it reasonable for a doctor to decide needing insulin everyday leads to a bad quality of life?

What exactly is a good quality of life and what is a bad one? How does one work out in a court of law that a person has a good quality life and if they don’t? What criteria would one use to measure this?

With these points in mind, I ask you to vote against the current bill.

Yours sincerely,

If you have any advise for any changes or think I should add something in, let me know in the comment box or even by email.

My email is on my profile page.

My goals for this week:

1) pray with Steve every night.

2) I am off to Adelaide for the weekend. My mother is moving into assisted living and my brother and sister need help going through mum's gear at her unit. I will be travelling by myself and Steve will be looking after everyone here. I need to get our house organised so that things can run smoothly for Steve. This will mean doing food shopping and menu planning before the weekend. It is the weekend that I would normally do my monthly planning/cook ahead but I won't be able to get it done. Hopefully I can get everything organised for the week and do the planning/big cook the next weekend.

Therese.