Volume 19, Issue 10

At the time of Kairos going to print, the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008 is due to be debated by the Victorian Parliament in the Legislative Council in the week commencing 9 June 2008.

This Bill permits doctors to prescribe a drug to intentionally end the life of a human being. The scope of the Bill is alarming. It affects not only those who are dying, but also those who have an advanced incurable illness.
The protection of the lives of those with chronic illness will therefore be dependant on the strength of their will to continue. No person should feel that their illness, at any stage, is a burden to their family, friends, carers or even the health system itself.

If prescribing poison to a patient to end their life were lawful, that sense of burden would be greatly increased because many people would feel pressure to relinquish their hold on life, and stop being a burden to others.
Economic, intellectually and socially disadvantaged people are particularly vulnerable as indeed are those with life long medical conditions. This is unacceptable.

Supporters of the Bill have made claims about existential pain. Pain of an existential nature arises usually from loneliness and a lack of sense of self worth. Serious illness and dying are times when a person needs the support of others.

By making available the option of a fatal prescription, the legislation, if passed, would undermine that ideal and create pressure on seriously ill persons and their families to consider assisted suicide even if they would not otherwise have done so.

The Australian Medical Association, the British Medical Association, the New Zealand Medical Association and the World Medical Association have all opposed similar legislation. 

Further information about the Bill, and the case opposing the BIll, is available on the archdiocesan website www.melbourne.catholic.org.au

UNITED NATIONS says no

The Netherlands introduced similar legislation - to relax legal protection with respect to an act deliberately intended to put an end to human life. 
A number of conditions were identified under which a physician is not punishable for assisting termination of a patient’s life.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a judgment on that legislation, that:
a)    Such a system may fail to detect and prevent situations where undue pressure could lead to these criteria being circumvented
b)    With the passage of time, such a practice may lead to routine and insensitive application of the strict requirements in a way not anticipated.