Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Thank you for the opportunity to take a call my first call on this bill. I'd like to acknowledge David Seymour. Thank you for bringing this to the House; Maryan Street and others who previously have brought this to the House. I'd like to acknowledge all of those. When I talk to people out there in the community there is often a view that someone in their sort of 80s 90s even nearing 100—they've lived a good long life. They're sick. They want to go. I often hear people say Just let them go. You know they've lived a good life. They've done their dash. Let them go." I understand that there are a number of people out there who have that view.I'd like to bring some balance to that view which I don't often hear as much which is somebody in their maybe 20s 30s 40s who is suffering who may feel like they want to go. And it relates to this aspect here in Part 1 where a person is eligible for assisted dying if they're over 18 years of age. One of the submissions on this bill that really stuck with me was the submission I heard—and I have permission to use their names but I'll just use their first names. There's a man and a woman Glenn and Heather and they got married in their early 20s. When they were in their mid-20s Glenn developed a brain tumour. About that time they had a young daughter named Rachael. Glenn was given three months to live by the doctor. He was in his mid-20s and given three months to live. He defied the doctor. He lived for another period of sort of three or four years. Again he was given the diagnosis: three months to live two months to live. He defied again. He lasted a few more years. Again he defied the doctor three times.He finally passed away when his daughter Rachael was nine years of age. Now Rachael had nine years with her father and during that time Rachael as a young girl used to dress up as a nurse and look after her father. She had that valuable time with him. I actually spoke to Rachel and I said "What was that time like? What were those nine years like?" She said "Look there is nothing that I wouldn't trade for those nine years." She values those nine years so highly. She once said to her mum Heather "If you and dad had decided to euthanise dad I really don't know how I would have forgiven you for that." Now I know that's quite an emotive story but it really does stick with me because Rachel had those nine years with her father that she wouldn't have had if under this legislation her father had chosen to be euthanised.The point—and it has been raised tonight but it's that doctors sometimes get it wrong. Now we all value our doctors in society. They do an excellent job but they don't always get the prognosis right. We've heard from the member David Seymour that—he acknowledged sometimes miracles do happen. In this case you probably could call it a miracle. But the member said that more do not get miracles than do and I agree. That's correct. But then the member said "Why put a large group of people through pain for the sake of only a few who might get a miracle?" But I would say for those who do receive a miracle their families benefit in such a huge manner by having that time with their loved one that I believe it's worth it. So Rachel had those nine years with her father that she wouldn't have had. She is now 16 years of age. She often speaks of her father; she speaks obviously very fondly of her father because she got to know her father because of this.There's just one final point I'd like to raise in the last few seconds and that's the aspect around dignity. We often hear this phrase "Death with dignity". We enter this world in an undignified manner. We often leave this world in an undignified manner. That's life; that's simply the cycle of life. There's a philosophical question there that members need to think about and that is the aspect of: how much do we tamper with life? There's a phrase "The sanctity of life" but we need to think about that. How much do we tamper with that life—the beginning and the end? So thank you for the opportunity to speak."