Australian News
Several of the world’s foremost researchers in medical end-of-life matters have released a detailed and comprehensive review of the practice of assisted dying in lawful jurisdictions around the world. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it does not support slippery slope hypotheses.
Watching pancreatic cancer kill her dad last year, Tara Cheyne saw the cleverest man she knew go from a bright spark to a dull husk.
He was the kind of dad took her to the library twice a week and learnt how to tie her hair in a ponytail when her mum moved up the corporate ladder.
The Victorian Government has accepted a cross-party committee’s recommendation to legalise assisted dying and looks set to hold a conscience vote on the issue next year.
Dear Bob Carr
I write following comments reportedly by you, claiming that legalising voluntary euthanasia could make it harder for doctors to help suffering patients to die. Also that, quote “Can we guard against the prospect of the approving physician of being so nervous of litigation they might be more reluctant, not less reluctant.”
He’s the progressive premier whose track record speaks volumes: legalising same-sex adoption; decriminalising medicinal cannabis; making abortion clinics safer for women – and that’s barely even scratching the surface.
But Daniel Andrews is about to face what could arguably be his most divisive social policy challenge yet: giving terminally ill people the option to choose the timing and manner of their death.
Given that for most people voluntary assisted dying is eminently sensible, it is still surprisingly difficult to have a reasoned debate about end-of-life choices.
