Senator Macdonald says mother's death shaped his view on euthanasia Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald. By his own admission, veteran politician Ian Macdonald is a "nasty shit" in federal parliament, but he quickly loses his trademark belligerence when discussing his late mother, Gladys. After chairing a committee examining a new voluntary euthanasia bill, the Liberal Party senator says his mother's prolonged demise has partly shaped his view that terminally ill Australians should have a right to die, provided a law has adequate safeguards in it to protect vulnerable people such as those with mental illnesses. In a candid interview, Senator Macdonald, an Anglican, said his beloved mother lived for seven years in a Queensland hospital after a severe stroke paralysed her right side in 1983, robbing her of most of her mobility, speech and quality of life. Despite teaching herself to write with her left hand and to say "yes," "no" and "I love you," six years after her catastrophic stroke she indicated she had had enough. "There came a stage where she started spitting out pills... but they sort of stood there and watched her take them," he said. After that tactic failed, she started to refuse food and water. But it took seven months of starvation for her body to finally give in. "She effectively starved herself to death... That is not a nice way to go," he said. At the end, I can remember the doctor saying to Mum 'It's time now Mac, isn't it?' and Mum gave her a sort of weak nod, and then she (the doctor) did something, I'm not sure what. Senator Macdonald does not want to comment on what that action might have been or whether it hastened his mother's death because he knows there is a grey area for doctors who want to relieve people's suffering at the end of their lives without being seen to euthanase them. In Australia, it is legal for doctors to use potentially lethal doses of drugs at the end of life, provided their primary intention is to relieve pain. But it is also illegal to assist a suicide, so doctors risk prosecution if they provide fatal doses of drugs to people wanting help to end their lives. Senator Macdonald does not know if his mother would have qualified for euthanasia under the current "dying with dignity medical services" bill being proposed by Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, but says that if he found himself in her position, he would want a doctor to help him die peacefully when the time was right. "Putting myself in my mother's position, I would have liked to have been able to accept the inevitable and do something about it," he said. Under Senator Di Natale's draft bill, adults who are suffering intolerably from a terminal illness and who are mentally competent would be able to request voluntary euthanasia. They would only be given assistance to die if two doctors agree their illness is terminal and a psychiatrist rules they are not suffering from treatable depression. A Senate committee, chaired by Senator Macdonald, has been examining the bill and is expected to table a report about it in parliament today (Monday). The report comes as prominent euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke's appeal against a Medical Board of Australia decision to suspend his registration begins in Darwin today. It took the action after Dr Nitschke admitted supporting a 45-year-old Perth man's decision to suicide, despite knowing the man was not terminally ill. Senator Macdonald, an MP for 24 years, has made headlines in the past for his outspoken and recalcitrant ways. He became a leading internal critic of John Howard after the former prime minister dropped him from his ministry. When Mr Howard offered him a diplomatic posting, Macdonald reportedly told him to "shove up it his arse." In December, Senator Macdonald also took a swipe at Tony Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, by saying the PM's office seemed to "have an almost obsessive centralised control phobia." Senator Macdonald acknowledged he was best known for his unpleasant personality in parliament, but said this issue appealed to his sofer side. "I'm an aggresive shit when it comes to the parliament... but in these sort of things, I'm a real softy," he said.