The head of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has labelled the proposed draft for the Northern Territory’s Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) laws as “the most radical the ACL has ever seen.”
CEO Michelle Pearse told Vision Radio: “I thought it couldn’t get worse than some of the other jurisdictions, but this is terrible.”
“It seems to take all the worst bits of the legislation from all the other jurisdictions in Australia and just packages them together in this one bill.”
The ACL says the “proposed draft would create the most extreme and irresponsible framework in Australia.”
KEY CONCERNS ABOUT THE PROPOSED DRAFT EUTHANASIA LAWS
Two weeks ago, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee released its final report from its territory-wide inquiry into once again allowing assisted suicide in the Top End.
“It goes further than any other State and follows the ACT model – a model that two Canberra Liberals called the most “extreme assisted dying legislation in the country,” noted the ACL.
Key concerns of the proposed drafting include:
- No prognosis required – every other jurisdiction required 6-to-12-months prognosis (excluding the ACT).
- Broad definition of suffering – “anticipated or expected physical or mental suffering” goes beyond any other state (excluding Tasmania and the ACT).
- Weakened conscientious objection – doctors who object required to refer on patients (Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales protect against this).
- No gag clause – health professionals could initiate conversations about VAD (Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales prohibit this).
MENTALLY ILL WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR ASSISTED SUICIDE
Michelle Pearse said: “Physical suffering some people understand because if somebody is in excruciating pain, they can understand why they would want to go through with euthanasia, even though we see that there’s palliative care measures that can be taken to alleviate that physical suffering.”
“But this draft allows mental suffering as well, people going through mental suffering to access euthanasia and that is so subjective.”
“It’s another example of a subjective statement within a law that shouldn’t be subjective.”
“DRAFT IS TERRIBLY COMPROMISING FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS”
“So if somebody is suffering extreme depression or anxiety or whatever related to their illness, this draft allows them to take an assisted suicide pill. Simply for mental suffering.”
“And that changes the focus of the medical professionals from helping to alleviate their mental suffering, to simply giving them an easy way out.”
“It’s terribly compromising for medical professionals.”
DOCTORS CAN FREELY SUGGEST SUICIDE TO PATIENTS
“As for the no-gag clause, in some jurisdictions doctors are prohibited from initiating the conversation on suicide, so they can’t bring it up in a medical appointment. But this won’t exist in this bill.”
“So doctors are able to bring up the subject of assisted suicide within their appointments with their patients.”
“So all of that is very dangerous,” concluded the ACL boss.
“This bill needs to be heavily amended, if not thrown out altogether.”
DRAFT REPEATS HISTORY
The ACL observed that this draft repeats history.
In the 1990s, the Federal Government intervened after the NT introduced unsafe VAD (then referred to as euthanasia) laws.
“The current proposal shows that the Territory still cannot be trusted to manage VAD responsibly, with a framework that is reckless and lacks essential safeguards,” declared the ACL.
PETITION PRESENTED TO NT PARLIAMENT
A petition signed by 857 people was presented to the NT Parliament this week, calling for:
- Members of the Legislative Assembly to vote against any legislation or motion brought before the Assembly that enables or advocates for Assisted Suicide.
- Members of the Legislative Assembly to spend Parliamentary time advocating for better Palliative and Aged Care services in the NT.
Michelle Pearse told Vision Radio: “It’s really dangerous for the Northern Territory, especially when they have so many other health issues in the territory — things that they should be spending their money on to improve.”
“Instead, they’re deciding to go down this path of spending their money on an assisted suicide program.”
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