A SIMPLE conversation with his daughter convinced a Brisbane Catholic medical specialist to mount an ongoing fight against euthanasia.
Queensland became the fifth Australian state to legalise voluntary assisted dying after a parliamentary vote last September and the scheme will come into effect in January 2023.
However, Dr Luke Garske believes there are significant numbers of Queenslanders who still strongly oppose euthanasia, and many others who have either been misinformed about the risks involved – especially for the most vulnerable and elderly – or haven’t thought deeply enough about the wider impacts on our society.
Last year Dr Garske, a chest specialist and a parishioner at Mater Dei Church, Ashgrove, formed a group of like-minded health professionals to lobby MPs against euthanasia.
Years of clinical practice and advanced study working with cancer patients had convinced him that palliative care is the best way to relieve end-of-life pain and suffering.
The father of four says the “motivator” for his advocacy work came during a family holiday.
He received a letter from his MP, stating that more than 90 per cent of voters supported VAD.
He had a discussion with his young adult daughter that convinced him that far more could be done to preserve the real meaning of dignified dying.
“I had a three minute conversation with her, where I just described, what palliative care really looks like, and how that can relieve someone’s suffering,” he said.
“And that at least some people would inevitably be pressured to have assisted suicide, or have a wrongful death due to medical errors, if assisted suicide was allowed.
“My daughter knows her own mind, but that three minute conversation changed her mind.
“After praying about this, I realised that many people who apparently support assisted suicide could also change their mind, if experienced health professionals helped them properly understand the realities at the coal-face.
“I also realised that although the Church has given us very good advice, this was not primarily a religious issue; it was an issue where the most basic humanity and care for others should guide the ethical choice to protect and value life.”
With about eight weeks before a parliamentary vote on euthanasia, and finding that no other professional groups were actively opposing VAD, Dr Garske formed the Queensland Care Alliance.
The group started writing letters, knocking on doors and mustering support amongst doctors, nursing and allied health workers.
Dr Garske said the alliance had a united in the belief that allowing euthanasia would fundamentally threaten the way they valued the lives of patients.
They also realised that VAD raised many ethical questions for private hospitals and residential aged care facilities run by religious organisations that will have the right to choose not to provide euthanasia, but must not hinder a person’s access to it.
In the final week of campaigning, Dr Garske stood in front of a huge Cherish Life rally in Brisbane to present the medical case against VAD.
“It was quite an extraordinary experience, there were over 1000 people and they were enthusiastic and passionately opposed to assisted suicide,” he said.
During that speech, Dr Garske maintained that Queensland’s harsh euthanasia laws would promote unsafe medical practices and claim a significant number of wrongful deaths.
As one example, he argued that the Queensland laws required doctors to agree that a patient was expected to live for less than 12 months, compared to less than six months in four other states that offer assisted suicide.
“Doctors are much better at predicting someone has a terminal illness when we use the six months threshold. At least 10 per cent of patients predicted to live less than 12 months would have still been living in three years,” Dr Garske said.
“We estimate that 10 out of 100 Queenslanders who choose assisted suicide will have done so based on the wrong belief that they had a terminal illness.
“In contrast, in the four other states, which offer assisted suicide only when you are expected to live less than six months, we estimate that one out of 100 patients will have chosen assisted suicide, based on the wrong belief that they had a terminal illness.
“This is just one example of how the Queensland VAD laws are particularly loose, and expose Queenslanders to extra risks of abuse and wrongful death.
“Is it acceptable for Queenslanders to have so many extra wrongful deaths, because of an arbitrary extension of an eligibility criterion that isn’t based on expert medical advice?”
Dr Garske admits it was difficult to mount a public campaign because of “emotive and often distorted stories” put forward by euthanasia advocates, particularly in mainstream media.
“And then many of the politicians got up and made speeches that were playing on emotion, and ignored the genuine concerns about safety,” he said.
On September 16, after three days of parliamentary debate, the voluntary assisted dying legislation finally passed by a clear majority: 61 votes in favour and 30 against.
No amendment was made, despite the Queensland VAD laws being widely seen as the loosest in the country, with more risk of abuse and wrongful deaths than in other states.
The state government committed $171 million over the next four years to expand palliative care services.
However, Dr Garske said this amount was “piecemeal” – nowhere near enough to provide quality services across Queensland, and only a fraction of the amount the state will spend on Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Games.
“Why doesn’t parliament just properly fund palliative care for all? It’s not expensive compared to so many other things we do” he said.
“Even within big public hospitals, it’s fairly woefully under-resourced, let alone in small hospitals and rural areas.
“Properly funded palliative care is the far more compassionate option, which in clinical reality will relieve suffering for many more people.”
Dr Garske acknowledges that his Catholic faith and the experience of his own family experience have guided him in responding to the suffering of others.
His faith was tested when his eldest child developed a severe intellectual disability at the age of five – an experience that has given him a “greater sense of connection with the suffering of the disabled, and an ongoing gratitude for the help of community, family and friends”.
His disabled child is now 25 years old, and Dr Garske, like others with vulnerable family members, hopes our society will value and protect their lives when he is no longer able to do this.
He strongly believes VAD laws represent a threat to this.
The Queensland Care Alliance plans a public education campaign to explain the risks and unsafe aspects of Queensland’s VAD legislation and will keep lobbying politicians and private investors to make high quality palliative care available across the state.
Dr Garske hopes to form a volunteer network across Queensland, bringing together people with diverse professional and faith backgrounds.
For more information, please contact the Alliance by email at secretaryqldcarealliance@gmail.com
