MPs' stories of life and death

By HELEN TUNNAH

The stories were heartfelt. Some harrowing. Some brought MPs to tears. For a few hours this week, MPs in the normal bear-pit of politics told stories of pain and suffering that had touched them.

The conscience vote on plans to legalise voluntary euthanasia polarised debate among politicians this week and MPs revealed harrowing experiences of watching friends and family die. In the end MPs voted 60-58, with one abstention, against sending the Death with Dignity Bill to a select committee, where the public could have had their say, so the bill failed at its first hurdle.

Exit New Zealand, the euthanasia lobby group led by Lesley Martin, is determined to keep the campaign and debate going.

This is what some of the MPs told Parliament about their brushes with death.

FOR THE BILL

Brian Donnelly, New Zealand First, recalls his father's friend who shot suffering men in war.

"There were experiences of having his men, on more than one occasion, trapped under burning tanks, with no possibility of escape but with only an agonising last few hours, minutes, whatever it was to be, of life as they pleaded with him, their officer, basically to shoot them.

"My dad's friend had reacted to their pleas, he had shot his men.

"I can still remember reflecting on this story of the dilemma that had been faced.

"Did he do the right thing in shooting those men, his friends, under those circumstances? Every time I have come to the only possible conclusion - yes, he did.

"People will say that that was war, and a different morality prevailed. I dispute that. Rules may change, but moral principles do not."

Rodney Hide, Act, tells of the death of economist and author Martin Hames, who, like his mother, had Huntington's disease.

"He had watched his mother die a terrible death.

"Last year he prepared everything. He swallowed a whole lot of pills and he passed out. He had bought new pyjamas and he pinned a note to his chest saying, 'Please do not resuscitate'.

"He came to in hospital and they said to Martin Hames that he had septicaemia in his legs and they wanted to take them off.

"He said, 'What would happen if you don't take my legs off,' and they said, 'You will die'.

"He said, 'Well, good, because I have Huntington's disease'. They gave him some pain relief and pushed him off to the side and he spent the day dying.

"I dreaded going to see Martin Hames and saying goodbye to a very special friend but one of the greatest things I have ever done is seeing a man dying with dignity.

"He said, 'I'm having a good death, Boss, because I didn't think I'd get the opportunity to say goodbye to all my friends'."

AGAINST THE BILL

Damien O'Connor, Labour, on watching a workmate die.

"Parliament spends a lot of time debating and arguing to preserve life in all its forms.

"I cannot understand that we can, as humans, make a judgment on when someone else should terminate that life.

"I was at one time working in a mine when unfortunately someone thought it wise to end his own life by pouring petrol over himself.

"I came along about half a minute after that horrible event. A person had put out the fire but we had in front of us a person who was dying, and we were doing our best to try to keep that person alive.

"I will remember every detail until the day I die.

"The inner being of that person was something that lived right until the final moment, making noises, groaning, wanting to live, wanting to express some inner feeling about wanting to remain a being."

Dr Lynda Scott, National, who worked in the hospice movement.

"As a geriatrician I dealt with people every day who felt they were a burden to their family. I dealt with elder abuse, and dealt with people who had a slow death which is never easy.

"But I remember when my own father died of cancer, and my favourite aunty.

"When I look back at the days I spent at my father's bedside I see that they are probably some of the best days.

"I probably spoke more to him in the last two weeks of his life than I had in 20 years before, and I loved that immensely.

"We must remember that this is about active euthanasia. This is about actively taking a person's life. We heard about Martin Hames, who made the choice not to have treatment and die - that is passive euthanasia and it happens.

"It is a doctor's ethical responsibility to save a life, not to take it."