To everyone who has signed, shared, and stood with us - thank you. We are now over 46,000 signatures strong. That is 46,000 people who know that what happened to Hem and thousands of others every year is not acceptable, and that the trauma for all involved must end.

Last week on the Hem's Law Facebook page, I published a post about one of the most persistent and damaging claims used to justify the current legal framework around dying from dementia - the claim that "the body knows how to die."

You may have been told this. You may have been told it gently, kindly, by someone who believed it. Maybe even by someone you trusted to only tell you something that was established science.

The sad truth is, it is only a hypothesis. The entire "comfort cascade" narrative - the idea that the dying body releases its own natural opioids to ease the process - is built almost entirely on studies of small numbers of laboratory rats in the early 1980s.

In the entire history of medical research, there is not a single study that has measured and confirmed this process happens in humans. Not one.

More than that: in people with Alzheimer's disease, the brain itself - the organ that would need to produce and respond to comfort chemicals - has been progressively destroyed by the disease. Research shows that the capacity of the brain to release and respond to its own endogenous opioids is significantly impaired in advanced dementia. The brain in that bed is not the intact brain of a laboratory rat. It is an organ that has been ravaged by disease.

This matters, because this unproven narrative is being used, right now, to tell families that their loved one is comfortable. That starvation is natural. That there is no other option.

Hem's Law says there is another option. A merciful one.

Head to the Hem's Law Facebook page to read the full post - the science is detailed, it is sourced, and it is important. The more people who understand this, the harder it becomes to ignore.

This is going to be a long road. We need you for it.

Legislative change in Australia does not happen in one place. It happens state by state, territory by territory. Eight jurisdictions. Eight parliaments. Eight separate fights to get this in front of the people who can actually change the law.

We need advocates in every corner of this country. Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, and the Northern Territory. We need people who are willing to make noise in their own backyard - to contact their local MPs, to share this petition in their communities, and to make sure that no politician in this country can say they never heard of Hem's Law.

This is not a sprint. We are building something that will outlast any single news cycle. Every signature matters. Every share matters. Every person who follows along and stays informed matters.

Here is what you can do today - it will take less than two minutes:

Share this petition with one person you haven't already asked. One. That's it. Just one person who deserves to know this is happening, and that something is being done about it.

Then come and join us:

Follow the Hem's Law Facebook page for regular updates, posts, and the science behind the campaign, and posts you can share with your own network.
Join the private Hem's Law Supporters Group on Facebook, where families, advocates, and people who just want to help can connect, share, and support each other. This is where we will be building the local teams to drive this forward in each state and territory.
The petition link is right here. Share it today.

Thank you for being part of this. Hem deserved better. So did your person. So does everyone who comes after them.

With much gratitude,

Angie

Founder, Hem's Law