LETTER: Let’s not confuse execution practices with voluntary assisted dying.

DEAR News Of The Area,

YOUR regular correspondent, John Blackbourn, wrote at length (The Write Direction, ‘Dreadful decisions’, Page 12, 22/10/2026) about his abhorrence of recent judicial executions in the USA.

My only information about these comes from the usual news reports, highlighting the prolonged suffering of the condemned through technical problems and, in one case, failure to deliver a lethal dose, which led to the resuscitation and survival of the woman involved.

It seems most of the competent ethical medical professionals in the USA don’t want to use their knowledge and skills to deliver judicial execution, and the technician executioners who do volunteer struggle to get venous access and don’t seem to know the fatal dose of the agent they use.

Unfortunately, Mr Blackbourn includes an aside, wondering aloud whether the delivery of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) in Australia is likely to be a similarly distressing process.

I consider this musing of his to be irrelevant to the main subject of the article and may add an unnecessary concern to suffering people considering VAD.

I would welcome Mr Blackbourn to discuss his take on Voluntary Assisted Dying in a future article.

Meanwhile, dispassionate information can be obtained from NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service on 1300 802 133.

Regards,

Marjorie Sutcliffe,

Hawks Nest.