The Victorian Government has crossed an ethical line and embraced a “culture of death”, the Australian Christian Lobby said today after the State Parliament’s Upper House passed a controversial voluntary assisted dying bill.
The bill was narrowly passed the in Legislative Council after a marathon debate with MPs, who were given a conscience vote, voted 20 in favour of it and 18 against. It will now go back to the Lower House. If passed, the state will become the first in Australia to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill.
Dan Flynn, the ACL’s Victorian director, said many Victorians would be disappointed that Parliament was “not able or willing to adequately address the deficiency in palliative care under the watch of the Andrews Government, instead pushing their agenda that it’s okay to prematurely end lives”.
He said the State Government had shown disregard for the terminally ill.
“No doubt this law will be used to the disadvantage of hundreds of elderly frail people who will see the so-called ‘right to die’ as the duty to die,” Mr Flynn said.
“We know that the elderly have already internalised the view that they are a burden to their family and carers. There is no doubt that the Government has opened the door to the killing of people who may die because of mistake or pressure from others.”
Mr Flynn said it was also disappointing that the Victorian Government had ignored the warnings of the Australian Medical Association that doctors should not be involved in interventions which have ending the life of the patient as their primary aim.
Meanwhile Lyle Shelton, managing director of the ACL nationally, warned that other states and territories must not cast aside palliative care in favour of state-sanctioned assisted suicide.
“The passing of state-sanctioned assisted suicide in the Victorian upper house today, with the blessing of the Andrews Government, highlights how easy it is for governments to be enticed by a culture of death rather than tackle inadequacies in the Government’s handling of palliative care,” he said.
Mr Shelton said euthanasia is “an easy, cheap and dangerous way out of addressing palliative care funding while risking the lives of vulnerable people”. “Victorian parliamentarians have taken a backward and dangerous step today that should be rejected by all other jurisdictions.”