In a community deeply divided over abortion and stem-cell research, it is
heartening to know that euthanasia is more popular than ever; almost three
quarters of us believing in a person's right to be able to die with dignity.

Last week the Herald Sun Issues Survey 2004 joined a long list of polls
showing overwhelming community support for euthanasia.

However, the Herald Sun poll went further, investigating differences in age
groupings, and it is here that the exciting news about euthanasia lies.

The Issues Survey 2004 documents significant differences in support for
euthanasia among people of different ages.

What is interesting about these differences is the relatively low level of
support from those under 25 years (63 per cent support) and those over 65
years (61 per cent support).

While younger people are often yet to encounter death at a personal level
and are yet to seriously entertain the notion that a natural death can be
drawn out, painful and downright demeaning, the low level of support among
the 65-plus group is a little more perplexing.

Scared of being ``put down'' against their wills in what they know to be a
lawless society in which old age is devalued?

PERHAPS. We do not know. What we do know is that euthanasia has never been
more supported among those in mid-life.

Four out of five of those in their late 20s to early 30s support euthanasia
and 78 per cent of those aged 45 to 54 show similar results.

In recent years researchers and writers on the generational divide have
talked of a rising resentment by Generation X towards older generations,
with Xers accusing their elders of wreaking economic and social havoc on the
environment, social structures and economic health.

For example, late last year the Productivity Commission reported that by
2044 Australia's Budget will have a $2200 billion black hole, thanks in part
to our ability to live longer and more expensively.

The older we get, the sicker we get and the more expensive treatment we
require. Smart Gen-Xers realise that something has to give.

The current taboo on allowing the elderly and the sick to put a quick and
painless end to their suffering might be a good place to start.

This argument gathers steam when one considers that voluntary euthanasia
costs about $25 a patient compared to the $5000 to $6000 on average for a
person in the terminal stages of their life in a palliative care hospice.

Yet according to the Federal Member for Menzies, Kevin Andrews, this expense
is preferable, regardless of what that individual wants.

At least, this was Andrew's argument when he spear-headed the private
member's Bill that overturned the Northern Territory's Rights of the
Terminally Ill Act in 1997.

For those aged 45 to 54, support for euthanasia can be explained from a
similarly personal, although different, point of view.

For the baby boomer generation, the right to decide how to live one's life
has always been important.

Contraception? You got it.

No-fault divorce? You bet.

REMEMBER, this is the generation that cut its teeth on the women's movement,
Vietnam, gay liberation and land rights.

It is the generation for whom challenging unjust laws was a way of life.

It is understandable, therefore, that this generation will want to have a
say in their death just as they've done in their life.

But there is another factor. This is also the generation for whom the
nursing home care of their own aged parents has sounded warning bells.
 

Ask anyone in this age group about their own ageing parents. The likely
response you will get is ``no nursing homes for us, no matter how good. When
I can't care for myself, I'm out of here''.

In contrast to generations before them, Gen-Xers and the baby boomers are
increasingly switched on to their collective future.

And they are not shirking the hard questions about the value of living
longer if our end, when it finally comes, cannot be as dignified as our
otherwise proud lives.

This is why they see common sense in supporting voluntary euthanasia.
But will the politicians ever catch up?

Dr FIONA STEWART and Dr PHILIP NITSCHKE are authors of Killing Me Softly:
Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill (Penguin)