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| Nancy
Crick |
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By Philip Nitschke
Nancy Crick was 69 years old when
she died in May 2002 surrounded by 21 family and
friends.
Nancy first discovered she had bowel
cancer when she accompanied a friend to a free
Rotary screening at the local shopping centre.
With a positive result Nancy quickly found herself
in hospital. While the operation should have been
simple, as Nancy put it “I woke up 5 hours
later in intensive care with a bag stuck to me
and no arsehole”.
Over the next few months her symptoms
worsened and on two occasions there was further
surgery.
Nancy first contacted me in March
2001 and asked for a visit the next time I was
in the Gold Coast. Over the following months,
Nancy made it clear that if things didn’t
improve, a peaceful death would be better than
what she was going through.
Spending her days in the “smallest
room of my house”, Nancy complained bitterly
about the cold, the nausea and the weight-loss.
Nevertheless, she agreed to pursue some further
medical options we discussed.
I visited Nancy on several occasions
over the next few months as medical strategy after
medical strategy failed. None of the palliative
measures initiated by Nancy’s treating doctors
gave her any significant relief. A peaceful death
was looking all the more desirable.
But Nancy was adamant that if she
“ended it all” she wanted her close
family with her. And she wanted to die in her
own home. But it would not be that simple.
The mere presence of her family
at the bedside when she died, could be seen as
a breach of the Queensland Criminal code and could,
in theory, attract a life prison sentence. When
I explained this to Nancy, she reacted angrily.
Nancy Crick was a feisty, outspoken
women who had spent over 30 years as a barmaid
in one of Melbourne’s roughest pubs - the
old Cumberland Arms in Sydney Road, Brunswick.
She was not a woman to be told what she could
and could not do.
Nancy and I discussed many ideas,
but the one that got her attention was my suggestion
that we start up an internet diary. A place where
she could ensure that her unedited voice would
be heard. And from where she could condemn a system
that would turn her and her family into lawbreakers.
So <www.nancycrick.com>
was born.
But there was one more problem.
What about the legal risk which her death might
pose to those who were present. Nancy wanted about
seven close family and friends with her. I suggested
she increase this number, to include a broader,
more representative community group. Safety in
numbers.
The police couldn’t really
charge 20 or so people with the crime of assisting
a suicide, so while the prospect may not have
presented the Government of Peter Beattie with
a legal problem, it sure did give them a political
problem.
Nancy jumped at the chance. She
wanted to make a difference. Her Internet diary
and the planned gathering at her death, she thought,
were the best way for her to do it. To challenge
bad laws that would have her die alone, and without
expert knowledge of how to die peacefully and
without the best drugs.
Nancy used her website to communicate
with people all over the world and to speak to
some – such as Premier Beattie directly.
Not that he ever listened.
Through her diary Nancy was able
to share her experiences with and hear back from
people from all walks of life. She was also able
to appeal for, and ultimately receive, a lethal
dose of the barbiturate Nembutal over the Internet.
Nancy made her last diary entry on 21 May 2002
and died shortly afterwards.
Nancy’s became a cause
celebre, not because she was a strong right to
die advocate but because, a rapidly-undertaken
and highly political autopsy report showed that
- technically – she had no cancer at the
time she died.
What Nancy did have was extensive
adhesions as the result of numerous cancer surgeries.
As any cancer specialist knows, adhesions can
be worse than having cancer itself. Nancy had,
as she put it, “no quality if life.”
Up until her death, Nancy and I
had always been very open about whether or not
she had cancer. For example on 30 March 2002,
The Australian newspaper had reported Nancy saying:
"I don't know what I've got
and they don't know what I've got, but whatever
it is, it's bloody well there. And they can't
find it with their operations and in the end it
comes down to quality of life and I've got none
of that now.
Those who keep telling me what to
do aren't going through what I'm going through
. It's not up to the politicians, or the church
or the doctors, it's up to the people, and it's
up to the patients. Why don't they ask the people?"
Alas the Australian media had other
ideas, and wasted no time depicting me as a liar
as they rode rough-shod over Nancy’s own
conviction that it was her poor quality of life,
rather than whether - technically speaking - she
still had cancerous cells in her body that made
her want a peaceful, dignified death.
Either way, Nancy’s death
was hugely contentious. However, it did lead to
a precedent of sorts. After more than 2 years
investigation, the Queensland Police decided not
to charge any of the 21 people present with Nancy
when she died. This decision should give some
comfort to the hundreds if not thousands of Australians
who want to have someone with them when their
time comes.
Read Nancy’s last diary entry
21 May 2002
My last diary entry:
My name is Nancy Crick, I’m
69 years of age and I live in my own home here
at Burleigh Waters in the Gold Coast.
Three years ago I found I had bowel
cancer and I’ve since had 3 operations.
Despite the best surgery and palliative care,
my life has deteriorated to such an extent that
I feel that death would be a blessed relief. But
I could not legally get help to do this and the
Premier, Mr Beattie says the law will not change.
I joined the Voluntary Euthanasia
Society of Queensland to help bring about a change
to these unjust laws.
I joined EXIT and asked
how I could best draw attention to my situation
so others would not have to suffer as I have had
to. One way I thought I could make a difference
was by an internet diary nancycrick.com The diary
has given me a chance to explain to everyone why
I think we’ve got to make changes to the
law. I’ve been overwhelmed that my diary
has been such a huge success and I’ve had
letters of support from all round the world.
One thing I used my internet site
for was to get the drugs that would help me die
peacefully, easily and reliably, when I decided
it was time to go. Several kind people provided
me with drugs which I know will put me to sleep
and end my life.
The thing that most upsets me is
that the law says I can kill myself anytime I
want to, but no one can be with me because they
might have helped me.
Well that’s just rubbish and
I don’t see why I should die alone. I don’t
want to die alone. Surely people just sitting with me, people I love,
my friends, don’t have to risk going to
jail, just because they chose to be with me when
I die. So I’ve invited relatives, friends
and supporters of Voluntary Euthanasia to be with
me - Nancy’s Friends.
Under existing laws, here in Queensland
and everywhere else in Australia, those who choose
to be with me risk prosecution and a possible
jail term of life imprisonment. The law may decide to charge my
friends who stayed with me. The law may say that
simply being with me is the same as helping and
assisting in my suicide.
THIS IS JUST NOT TRUE.
I have chosen to take my life at
a time when I am able to do so myself, I am not
asking for and do not need or want any help to
die. I am not being pressured or encouraged
to take my life, in fact everyone has been trying
to get me to stay longer - but they’re not
going through what I am.
Let me be clear, no one has paid
me, or my friends, family or supporters, any money
to do this.
I am not depressed or unstable or
mad I’ve simply reached a point where my
life is done and now I want to die peacefully. I tried all the medical options,
gave all of them my best, but in the end it didn’t
work out. I’m not angry and I don’t
feel sorry for myself - it’s just the way
it is.
Nancy’s Friends being with
me when I die is meant to be a challenge - a challenge
to an unjust law. But I want to protect this group
of people as much as I can, and this is the reason
I’m making this tape.
If anyone out there is asked to
serve on a jury that is called upon to judge those
who bravely chose to be with me when I died, I
want you to acquit these people who have stood
by me.
They’ve done nothing wrong. I want you to
find them NOT GUILTY of any ridiculous charge
that tries to say they assisted in my suicide. It’s my death - I’m doing it - NO
ONE else!
Nancy Crick,
Burleigh Waters, Qld.
21st May 2002
Nancy's Friends
In memory of Nancy, Exit International has established Nancy's Friends - a volunteer-based, counselling service for those needing information on end-of-life choices.
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