Mr. Garret Ahern:

There have been huge advances in medical care and treatment over the past 70 years. The Hippocratic oath is first to do no harm. I believe that all medics, including those who work in palliative care, really do their utmost to prolong people's lives, including both the quality of their lives and the duration of their lives. Over the past 20 to 30 years, our lifespans have become increasingly longer. We have, in my opinion, tended to outsource the care of our loved ones, which would have traditionally taken place in our homes, and the death of those loved ones, which may have taken place in their homes. We have now outsourced that to the commendable, laudable organisations of hospices, nursing homes, and indeed palliative care which may be received in a hospital. Death has become something which we have kind of put in a corner and tried to medicalise as much as possible.

I cannot begin to speak for the professionals involved, but I did not arrive at this conclusion one morning. I had much introspection about palliative care, end of life, and its merits and virtues, which are still there, but I think there is a reticence on behalf of that group to accept something that is counterintuitive to everything it strives to do, which is the prolonging of life. I do not know if that gives the Senator an adequate answer. Those are just my thoughts.