photos of day 3 and 4 in gallery or will be soon
Yesterday after actually cooking some healthy food I headed off to listen to  Catherine Deveny and Stella Young in conversation. It was riveting. What Sunday afternoon fireside chat would not include, vaginas, knitting, safe injecting rooms and of course dwarf porn. It was a very cosy and lively conversation as would be expected by such "agressively friendly" (their words) people such as Cath and Stella.

There was an interesting twist in the conversation that has stayed in my thoughts today. Dying with Dignity versus living with dignity. Stella commented that she was very ambivalent to euthanasia while Cath is an ambassador for Dying with Dignity Victoria.
I don't want to verbal either one of them but this is how I heard the conversation.
Stella was not as interested in a dying with dignity campaign until all people can live with dignity. She has a point. There are people with disabilities who think they are lucky because a carer comes three times a week to help them shower and go to the toilet! People with disabilities are still treated as generally asexual. The ability for people with disabilities to access social hubs is nearly impossible. Stella has almost had to forego stand up comedy because she does it sitting down and there are very very few venues with disabled access.

The autonomy, privacy and sexual rights of people with disabilities has been something I have been passionate about for 20 years. It was one of the first areas that the Sex Party developed policy on.
• Read the Australian Sex Party Sexual Rights for Seniors and People with a Disability Policy

Stella also made the kind of frighteningly true comment that it would in all likelihood be  easier for her to pass the dying with dignity test than an able-bodied person. That might not be the case in Oregon where they have had a legal system that  has legally acknowledged dying with dignity for nearly 20 years. I have listed the basic parameters of the Oregon model below .

The Australian Sex Party advocates that :

• Voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide for patients with a terminal illness and suffering severe pain to be decriminalised.
• In addition to the patient’s primary medical practitioner a second and independent practitioner would be required to confirm his / her agreement with the diagnosis and prognosis.
• Information about palliative care options must be given to the patient and having been given this information the patient must confirm to the primary medical practitioner that all other options are not acceptable and that he or she wants assistance.
• A seven day cooling off period must then be allowed for before assistance can be provided.

But while I am a great believer in dying with dignity, my head has turned to living with dignity, living well and as an atheist (as is Stella) -  living life to the fullest because it is all we've got.

Read more: Euthanasia - Oregon's Euthanasia Law - Person, Suicide, Drugs, and Federal - JRank Articles http://law.jrank.org/pages/6602/Euthanasia-Oregon-s-Euthanasia-Law.html#ixzz1ymOe4S9o

Oregon's Euthanasia Law

The person must be terminally ill.
The person must have six months or less to live.
The person must make two oral requests for assistance in dying.
The person must make one written request for assistance in dying.
The person must convince two physicians that he or she is sincere and not acting on a whim, and that the decision is voluntary.
The person must not have been influenced by depression.
The person must be informed of "the feasible alternatives," including, but not limited to, comfort care, hospice care, and pain control.
The person must wait for 15 days.