Being hit by a comet while having sex is how Andrew Denton would like to die.
“I haven’t checked the odds, but I think they’re high!” he quips to Woman’s Day.
Death – or making sure Australians have access to a good one – has become a calling for the former ABC presenter.
In 2016 he founded Go Gentle Australia, a charity that campaigns for the right of all Australians to Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD).
HIS LIFE’S CALLING
“My media career was over as soon as I lost my looks, which was about eight minutes after I started,” he jokes of his career pivot, which has seen him move from interviewing Australia’s biggest celebrities to launching a podcast series, Better Off Dead – which culminated in former Prime Minister Bob Hawke calling for Australia to introduce assisted dying laws – and lobbying the government while also launching his own charity.
“It may seem bleak or morbid or sad, and it can be all of those things, but it’s in fact very rewarding, very life affirming and very rich,” he adds of the work he’s doing.
“It started with the death of my own father [Kit] back in the late ’90s, which was prolonged and painful over three days,” he says of his dad who died from heart failure at 67.
“The images of those final days will never be erased,” he says.
“I know [my dad] would’ve appreciated the choice [of whether to die voluntarily]. He had spoken publicly that he supported the idea, but I also know from the experience of seeing many people go through this now that having the choice and taking it are different things. It takes a lot of courage.”
It was many years after his father’s death that Andrew engaged with the question of “why don’t we have a law in Australia like they do in the Netherlands?”
His search for an answer sparked a year-long journey across Europe, America and Australia, and what he found in his home country was that “good people were dying bad deaths and mostly for very bad reasons, mostly based on religions and patriarchal attitudes in our medical community. There was no need for these deaths to be happening.”
“There was a great fear, which was largely planted by those who opposed it, that vulnerable people would be forced into making a decision to end their life,” says Andrew.
“Nothing could be further from the truth – people have the right to object but not to actively block access.”
Only about 2 per cent of Australians choose VAD, including many suffering from incurable diseases, such as MND [Motor Neurone Disease] which cause unbearable pain.
In the 10 years since Andrew set up Go Gentle, every state and territory – bar the Northern Territory – has legalised VAD.
He’s still fighting to remove barriers that limit access, including pushing for amendments to the Commonwealth Criminal Code to allow the use of electronic communications in VAD, such as Telehealth.
A POTENT MESSAGE
Speaking about assisted dying can still be treated like the great taboo.
Andrew recently publicly thanked beloved ABC broadcaster James Valentine for his “final act of generosity” in documenting his battle with oesophageal cancer, and revealing that he chose assisted dying.
James, who had a living wake on Valentine’s Day surrounded by family and his dearest friends, chose to “live fully until he could love no more” even starring in a special Australian Story episode.
“I know speaking to his wife Jo and his kids Roy and Ruby at James’ memorial service that they are so intensely grateful for the time they had with James… He was able to say ‘enough’ and that’s very powerful,” shares Andrew.
“I have extreme gratitude to James and his family, what they did was above and beyond, it showed real courage and an understanding that this taboo doesn’t help,” he says.
