X-Message-Number: 4911
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 12:38:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: fwd: S-O-S: Message from a Dying Man
S-O-S: Message from a Dying Man
Fri, 22 Sep 1995 22:19:40 can.med.misc
Austin Bastable at "Please help me die with dignity"
SOS: Message from a Dying Man
September 22, 1995
If part or even all of what I am about to say is not "on target" for
this particular newsgroup, I apologize for intruding. There do not seem
to be many newsgroups on the Internet where someone who is dying may
speak frankly about the indignities he is suffering in the process.
Anyone can be stricken unexpectedly by a terrible illness like mine, and
everyone will someday die, so I hope you do not mind if I post my words
here and further invite readers to re-post them wherever they will
(especially in discussion areas, on American OnLine, Compuserve,
Microsoft Network, etc. where I do not have access). The fact is: we
desperately need a change in our laws and we won't get any changes as
long as people remain silent. A man in my position is relatively
powerless. Were it not for the assistance I receive from the Right to Die
Society of Canada (including the use of a computer) my story would never
be told exactly as I want it to be, through my own Web pages and
elsewhere on the 'Net. I am turning to the Internet in the hope that my
message will be amplified and that the whole world will be a witness to
what the Canadian government does to people like me during their dying
process. I hope that pressure will mount both inside and outside of
Canada, forcing our federal politicians to introduce, debate, and vote
upon legislation permitting assisted suicide and euthanasia under strict
conditions. If you care about human rights, please read on:
My name is Austin Bastable. I am a 52-year-old Canadian man who has
suffered from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis for the past
years. I can speak clearly but otherwise am almost completely paralyzed.
I have just enough movement in my left hand to click a mouse and send
this message to the Internet. (I have help, of course, with the typing.)
On Tuesday, September 19/95, I held a press conference in Windsor,
Ontario, and announced that I am seeking to end my life through an
assisted suicide sometime before year's end. I announced it publicly
because I want everyone to know what I (and many others) endure as a
result of Canada's archaic, 104-year-old prohibition against assisted
suicide - and as a result of the refusal by Canada's politicians to deal
openly and honestly with the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Periodically in the weeks ahead I will post a "message to the Internet"
to let people know how I am doing and how things are going. Somewhat like
a "message in a bottle" cast upon the sea. I can only hope that some
people will read it. And that at least a few will care. And perhaps
someone somewhere will even *help* me. To start off with, I am afraid
that things are pretty grim. I DO NOT HAVE THE MEANS by which to take my
life. I have a doctor who is sympathetic to my plight - but who refuses
to prescribe the medication I need (either barbiturates or tricyclic
antidepressants) because he may be prosecuted under our current laws. The
Criminal Code of Canada makes it a federal offence, punishable by up to
14 years imprisonment, for anyone to "counsel suicide", or to "aid and
abet" a suicide -- even though it is my devout wish to see my life
brought to an end, quickly and painlessly at a time of my choosing! I
need assistance in commiting suicide simply because I cannot manage to do
all that is physicially necessary on my own. Does anyone care about the
human rights abuses and the physical torture, which I and others suffer
because of terrible illnesses like MS, ALS, AIDS, various types of
inoperable cancers, and other fatal afflictions? So many people get
worked up about the fate of baby seals in Newfoundland, or clearcutting
trees in British Columbia, the pros and cons of Quebec independence, and
all sorts of fashionable causes: but I never hear any of our
"trendsetters" speak out about human rights and the terminally ill.
Canada's Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin has done more on behalf of
regulating Turbot fishing than any politician has done on behalf of
people in my predicament! Apparently all we need is a Cabinet Minister
or two who cares as passionately about human beings as Mr. Tobin does
about fish. Not one Canadian artist, writer, pop star, or celebrity of
any sort, has ever said a word publicly (that I know of) about the
inhumane way in which people are dying in this country. I intend to
write personally to as many of these people as I can in the weeks ahead
and ask them to use their consciences; use their influence; and SHOW
that they care. I will write to authors Margaret Atwood, Mordecai
Richler, Pierre Berton, among others. I will write to musicians
Bryan Adams and K. D. Lang. I will write to everyone I can think of
who might conceivably care about human suffering. I will write and
write until there is no fight left in me. I began today by dispatching a
letter to each Member of Parliament and Senator in Canada - more than
400 messages in total! I will post any notable responses at my website
(available at http://www.rights.org/~deathnet/HELP_AUSTIN.html) I have
been able to create this website through the help of The Right to Die
Society of Canada. Were it not for the good people of this organization
(especially Ruth von Fuchs, head of the Ontario chapter, and John
Hofsess in Victoria, BC) I would not be able to communicate my thoughts
and feelings in this way. I too would be swept under a carpet of silence
like so many others as they die. Silence is what keeps the tyrannical
present system so firmly in place. Silence, indifference and
complacency.
Try to imagine: you pass the night fitfully, like so many other
nights. You cannot move. Your illness has incapacitated you. You cannot
sleep and you cannot rest (your mind is racing to all sorts of places
you cannot go). Not even to the refrigerator for a snack. You are
dependent totally upon others for absolutely everything. You have to be
bathed. You have to be clothed. You have to be fed. You have to be, in
my case, literally hoisted out of bed in the morning and dropped down
into a wheelchair. You have to be taken to the washroom. You have to
have your bum wiped. If you are alone, even for half an hour, you
have to be careful not to slide down into an uncomfortable position in
the wheelchair because there is nothing you can do to set yourself
right again. Some severely disabled or fatally ill people may not mind
all the attention they need from "caregivers" but I hate it. This
borderline way of life is not for me! Easier said than done, as Sue
Rodriguez found out! (For those outside Canada, not familiar with that
reference, Sue Rodriguez was a 43-year-old Victoria woman with ALS who
applied to Canadian courts - all the way up to the Supreme Court of
Canada - for a recognition of her "constitutional right" to have an
assisted suicide because she was incapable of taking her own life
unassisted. The Court was narrowly divided and ruled against her in a
5/4 decision in 1993.) How may I bring my suffering to an end? We have
no Dr. Kevorkian in Canada. We don't even have doctors like the "group
of 7" in Australia who went public with the admission that they had
occasionally helped terminally ill patients to die. The Canadian Medical
Association, like the American Medical Association, is dominated by
conservatives who are opposed to the concept of "self-determination"
for patients - especially when it comes to patients deciding for
themselves whether they wish to go on living or not. We not get get the
objective practice of medicine from these groups - but a prescription
of ideology and medicine, along with a condescending atttitude that
"doctors know best". But it is not the doctors who are enduring my
suffering. It is not doctors who have MY sense of self-worth and MY
sense of values. I know that The Right to Die Society of Canada will do
everything in its limited power to help me; if it were not for this
group, Canadians would have no activist leadership on these issues.
Anyone wishing to contact me privately may do so by writing Austin
Bastable: c/o P. O. Box 39018, Victoria, BC Canada V8V 4X8 (I will
have my own box number shortly in Windsor, Ont, but in the meantime all
mail will be forwarded to my home from the Society's postal box.) Or
you may email me at: Time is running out for me.
The hourglass will soon be empty. If you can help me make the most of my
last weeks on earth, please contact me and perhaps we can speak
personally. I have no time to waste, you understand; I'm looking for
people who will help me die as I wish to do, or else people who will
help amplify my message on Parliament Hill. Any expressions of interest
from the media should be addressed to Ruth von Fuchs at
or by telephone to the Right to Die Society
of Canada's head office at (604) 380-1112; FAX (604) 386-3800. Thank you
for reading this message. Please visit my website if you can. It is known
as "Please Help Me Die With Dignity". If you have any ideas that I should
consider please let me know: Ideas for fund-raising. Ideas for political
action. Ideas for helping me find a doctor who will write the
prescription that I need. I have lots of ideas myself but next to no
money. As in so much else in life, we could do wonders for the
right-to-die cause in Canada if only we had more financial support. I
have perhaps 10-12 weeks to live. I have no idea what I can accomplish in
that time. If I am ignored by the media, then I will of course have much
less political influence than I need in order to "wake up Parliament." I
hope that the people of the Internet will help me find ways of bringing
this human rights revolution to Parliament Hill.
Austin J. Bastable Windsor, Ontario
From the wheelchair of Austin Bastable
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