The CEO of Catholic Health Australia has expressed “deep concerns” over a bill being presented in the Australian Senate which would give Australian territories the right to pass assisted suicide and euthanasia legislation.
The private members bill, put forward by Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm, aims to overturn a 20-year-old law preventing the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory from legalising assisted dying. The NT became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise euthanasia in 1995 but the Federal Government passed legislation two years later which banned both territories from legalising assisted suicide.
In a letter sent last week to Australian senators, Suzanne Greenwood, CEO of CHA, said legislating for euthanasia and assisted suicide would have dangerous unintended consequences for vulnerable Australians and had been consistently opposed by national and international medical experts.
She said it was troubling that the bill came when an inquiry in the ACT into end-of-life care had found there was inadequate access to palliative care there.
“The most recent data from the Australian institute of Health and Welfare states that in 2016 there was an insufficient 226 specialist palliative medicine physicians across all Australia, with only six palliative care specialists available in the ACT and a scant four in the NT to service an area 1.421 million kilometres squared,” Ms Greenwood said in the letter.
“We are gravely concerned about the potentially dangerous impact this legislation would have, undermining the medical profession, devaluing palliative care, and desensitising public attitudes to suicide.”
Greenwood urged senators to vote no to the bill.
The bill has also been opposed by the Australian Christian Lobby who have warned that wherever euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation is implemented “vulnerable people die”.
Victoria became the first Australian state to pass voluntary assisted dying legislation last year.
