Australia’s Oldest Scientist Travelling To Switzerland To Commit Suicide
David Goodall is Australia’s oldest scientist – he’s 104 years old and has said that his quality of life has deteriorated so much that he’s travelling to Switzerland this month to commit suicide. He’s secured a fast-tracked appointment with an assisted dying agency in Basel, Switzerland.
“I greatly regret having reached that age,” Goodall said on his birthday in April. “I’m not happy. I want to die. It’s not sad particularly. What is sad is if one is prevented. My feeling is that an old person like myself should have full citizenship rights including the right of assisted suicide,” he added.
Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries, and was completely banned in Australia until the state of Victoria decided to legalize the practice in 2017. Unfortunately, this legislation will take effect in 2019, and will only be available to residents who are terminally ill and have less than six months to live.
The company helping Goodall make the 15,000 kilometer journey to Switzerland is Exit International, and they have said that it was “unjust” that one of Australia’s “oldest and most prominent citizens should be forced to travel to the other side of the world to die with dignity. A peaceful, dignified death is the entitlement of all who want it. And a person should not be forced to leave home to achieve it.”
Exit International have set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Goodall and his helper to upgrade their plane tickets from economy to business class, and have already raised more than AU$17,000. The last few years have been tough on Goodall, as he was essentially forced out of his honorary research position at Perth’s Edith Cowan University in 2016 after being “declared unfit to be on campus”.
