The Palliative Care movement was first started in England by Dr Cicely Saunders (also known as Dame Cicely Saunders), an Anglican doctor who spent years researching pain relief and in 1967 set up, in London, Saint Christopher’s Hospice, the world’s first purpose-built hospice.

Palliative care, by definition, is the medical alleviation of pain and other distressing symptoms so as to improve the quality of life of those with life-threatening illness.

Dr Saunders’ most original innovation was setting up multidisciplinary teams to provide relief of physical pain and to help with the spiritual and mental needs of the patients and their families.

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Euthanasia is NOT part of palliative care.

Dr Saunders believed that suicide-prevention is essential — crucial to fulfilling a hospice’s mission to value the lives and intrinsic dignity of each patient until the moment of natural death.

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It is sometimes said that the general public favours euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The opinion polls on which such claims are based are complicated by the wording of the questionnaires confusing  the issue.

In Britain, where the media have claimed that “up to 82 per cent” of the British general public approve of euthanasia, a 2009 survey by the Royal College of Physicians found that 73 per cent of its members OPPOSE euthanasia.

In places such as in the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been widely practised for many years, Palliative Care services are virtually non-existent.

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A sinister movement exists which seeks to make euthanasia respectable, devoting itself to recruiting sick or depressed people into killing themselves or letting themselves be killed.

It calls itself the “Voluntary Euthanasia” movement.

Many elderly Australians have allowed themselves to be caught up in this, and have been taught macabre ways of killing themselves. Many of them were never aware that excellent palliative care is available.

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The newly-launched website: www.family.org.au/care operated by the Australian Family Association is worth visiting for more information about Palliative Care.