With voluntary assisted dying not an option, Laura Henkel is heading to Switzerland to ‘die with dignity’ – ABC News

Updated December 15, 2019 15:11:40

Laura Henkel is about to embark on the last journey of her life.

While pain and exhaustion have become an inescapable part of this 90-year-old's life, she has not been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

"I think old age is a terminal illness because you can't cure it like a disease, you can't mend it like a broken bone," she said.

"It's only going to get worse and there's nothing you can do about it.

"I don't want to put my family through the terrible experience that I had with my own mother, where she suffered for 15 years with dementia and loss of dignity.

"I vowed 40 years ago that I would not die like that."

Voluntary assisted dying in Australia is not an option for Ms Henkel.

While Victoria and Western Australia have passed assisted dying laws, they only apply under a strict set of circumstances.

In both states, applicants must be terminally ill with intolerable pain, and likely to die within six months, or 12 months for neurodegenerative diseases.

It is illegal in all other states and territories.

Determined to end her life on her own terms, Ms Henkel is packing her bags for Switzerland.

"I want to end my life with dignity," she said.

"I would far rather stay here in my home and die here in my home with my family around me, but here in New South Wales I'm not allowed to. I'm not allowed to die."

Ms Henkel's daughter, Cathy Henkel, and granddaughter, Sam Lara, are supporting her decision and will be by her side when she dies.

"Well, of course it conflicts when your mum tells you she wants to die," Cathy Henkel said.

"But she very quickly explained to me that her quality of life had declined to such a degree, and she told me about her own mother and not wanting to end up like her, and I could see that daily suffering."

Ms Henkel has asked her filmmaker daughter and granddaughter to document her euthanasia journey.

It is a challenging task for a loved one grappling with her grandmother's decision.

"I feel a million emotions on an hourly basis," Ms Lara said.

"But in the long-term, I think the upsides to this choice are definitely going to outweigh the challenges.

"The best aspects of Laura's choice have definitely been the chance to say goodbye.

"We've been able to do a lot of bucket-list things."

The three generations of women hope the film will start a dialogue in Australia about the laws around voluntary assisted dying.

"What Laura is doing is forcing us to talk about death and to talk about the end of life for the elderly and what options they have and what options they don't have," Ms Lara said.

"It is incredibly challenging, and I know because I've lived it.

"It is going to bring up a lot of emotion and conflict in people [but] I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing."

While Ms Henkel has made her position clear, the issue of voluntary assisted dying in Australia is a complex and often divisive issue.

Margaret Sommerville is a professor of bioethics at the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Sydney.

"People believe it's their right, it's their decision and this is what they want to do, but we also have to think about what impact would that have in our society in general," Professor Somerville said.

"We know that people who feel like that, when they get fully adequate care and support, a very large number of them change their mind.

"This is even people who have asked for and consented to euthanasia in jurisdictions where it's legal."

The Australian Medical Association's statement position is that doctors should not be involved in ending a person's life.

It recognises the broad range of views within the medical profession and the broader community, but says laws relating to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are, "ultimately a matter for society and government".

For Laura Henkel, the fear of losing autonomy through a stroke or dementia outweighs the fear of death.

"I don't want to die in hospital, [and] I don't want to die in an old-age home," she said.

"A sportsman is allowed to say, 'Look, I've had enough'. You may say, 'Oh, but he can still play beautifully why does he want to retire?' But he suddenly feels he's had enough, so you accept that, so why not accept that life is the same thing?

"Just about everybody says, 'I would like to die in my sleep', and that's precisely what I'm going to do.

"I'm going to go to sleep, and then I will die."

Topics:aged-care,health-policy,euthanasia,death,pain,community-and-society,ballina-2478,lismore-2480,switzerland

First posted December 15, 2019 09:11:44

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With voluntary assisted dying not an option, Laura Henkel is heading to Switzerland to 'die with dignity' - ABC News