By Goya Dmytryshchak
Ray Godbold made headlines when, in defiance of the law, he was published with Dr Rodney Syme on the front page of The Age with a bottle of life-ending drug Nembutal in front of them.
Now, Ray’s son, Williamstown’s Rory Godbold, has written a fictional play stemming from his father’s story, coinciding with Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws coming in to effect on June 19.
Ray, who died in 2015 at age 59, had been suddenly diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer.
Rory said at the time his father had been working as a palliative care nurse, particularly in cancer care.
“Facing his own death, knowing how it would probably play out, he decided that wasn’t what he wanted for his family and that wasn’t what he wanted for himself, so he started to look in to avenues where he could take control over that situation,” Rory said.
“He got in touch with Rodney Syme, who’s a urologist who has for about 30 years been helping people with advice on how to end their lives – Rodney calls it the key to the fire escape.
“Then, what came for us was the unexpected that I think dad was trying to avoid … there was a lot of delirium, a lot of confusion; it’s like all of a sudden he had dementia.
“It was the day he died that he wanted to take it [the Nembutal] but based on the condition he was in, he couldn’t.
“Thinking back to that situation with dad, the thing that provides me comfort is that in that situation where he was physically unable to take it, there is now a clause in the law that if the person has gone through all the steps and they cannot physically take it, they can be administered an injection by their doctor.”
Rory’s play, When The Light Leaves, will be performed at La Mama Courthouse, Carlton, from June 12-23.
A Q&A session featuring prominent advocates will be held after the June 19 performance to discuss the voluntary assisted dying law and what it means for Victorians moving forward.
