When John Nixon was a younger man, he was a firefighter and “exercise freak”. At 88 he had a “list of diseases as long as your arm”, with medication to match. He could no longer walk or properly use the toilet, had a prostate condition and suffered dementia.
It was this John Nixon who sat under a shady tree and drank a mix of Coca-Cola, Valium and oxycodone that police claimed, unsuccessfully, killed him.
“Dad, this’ll just make you go to sleep,” his son Peter said.
This week, a day after Victoria became the first Australian state to legalise euthanasia, Peter Nixon was found not guilty of aiding suicide.
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Read the in-depth piece at www.brisbanetimes.com.au.
“Everybody’s life is a long journey and I don’t think anybody’s journey would like to have to encompass what my family, myself have been through over the last two-and-a-half years and longer,” he said.
When Mr Nixon was interviewed by the police two years earlier, he warned there were “hundreds of thousands” of people in his position.
“Hopefully something comes out of this,” he said.
“When people are still cognitive enough (that) they don’t want to participate in this world, so be it.”
“It’s an act of love and kindness. It’s not the easiest thing to do and I think a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do it but where I stuffed up was when I put dad into aged care five years ago.”
Last week, Victoria became the first state in the country to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill.
Patients will have the right to request a lethal drug to end their lives from mid-2019.
“This is a day of reform, a day of compassion, a day of giving control to those who are terminally ill,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“I’m proud today that we have put compassion right at the centre of our parliamentary and our political process.”
In July, a motion committing to legalising voluntary assisted dying in Queensland was also passed but the Labor government has no plans of change.
“The Palaszczuk government has no current plans to introduce legislation to allow for voluntary euthanasia and will continue to closely monitor developments in other jurisdictions,” her office said, citing the “significant concerns” the government has in protecting vulnerable persons as the reason.
