Cherish Life

Euthanasia

Euthanasia is the deliberate killing of a person by a medical professional, whether is it directly by injecting poison into a patient or indirectly by helping a patient commit suicide. 

Euthanasia and assisted suicide should not be confused with the cessation of useless treatment or the failure to commence treatment that would be a hindrance to patient comfort or offer no useful purpose. It is also not the use of medication with the intention of relieving severe pain.  

There is often confusion between what is palliative care and what is euthanasia, this document clearly defines both (click here to open).

Everyone agrees that if terminally ill patients were given futile and burdensome life-saving intervention, this would not be in their best interests as it would prolong the dying process. In any case, this should never happen, as competent adults have the legal right to refuse medical treatment, put their wishes in binding Advance Health Directives and/or give Enduring Powers of Attorney to their family or trusted friends to decide on their behalf if they are unable to do so.  

QUEENSLAND

It’s vitally important to understand that in Queensland we only have about 1/3 of the palliative care specialists that we should, this gross shortage most acutely felt in regional Queensland. Undeniably the state government’s chronic neglect of specialist palliative care, is one of the main drivers behind the push for legalisation of euthanasia in Queensland. Some people have died in pain, needlessly so.

Tragically the Queensland Labor Government legalised euthanasia and assisted suicide in October 2021.

WHY NOT EUTHANASIA?

  • The Australian Medical Association is against euthanasia of any kind.
  • All the peak medical advisory or representative bodies in Australia are opposed to euthanasia, and as are many around the world including the World Medical Association. In short, euthanasia legalisation is rejected by the vast majority of those on the front line of caring for the sick, elderly and disabled.
  • 101 Victorian oncologists wrote against euthanasia: “Assisted suicide is in conflict with the basic ethical principles and integrity of medical practice.”
  • The majority of pallaitive care specialists are opposed to euthanasia (see pages 34-37)
  • It is a slippery slope and tragically Belgium is now euthanising children.
  • It is utterly counter-productive to combating Australia’s suicide problem
  • Suicide concerns: a number of jurisdictions where assisted suicide has been legalised have recorded a marked overall increase in suicides, including non-assisted suicides, afterwards. This is because the legalisation of assisted suicide normalises all suicide, tragically. The Netherlands is one such example, after the legalisation of euthanasia there was an 110% increase in overall suicides, which included a 10% increase in non-assisted suicides. 
  • Euthanasia lobbyists often wrongly assert that the alternative in terminal cases is an agonising death, but the truth is that almost all pain can be mitigated or managed with good palliative care. 
  • In the very rare cases when physical pain cannot be managed adequately, palliative care specialists can use a form of light sedation to keep the dying patient comfortable, whether to allow a brief “time out” at peaks of pain, or to manage terminal symptoms. 
  • Euthanasia is not healthcare, it is a social demand based on fear and principals of extreme autonomy. Doctors should kill the pain, not the patient.
  • Euthanasia would be open to terrible manipulation and abuse. Cases of people being “euthanised” against their will have occurred.
  • Euthanasia inherently devalues human life, particularly those who are elderly, sick or disabled.
  • Like abortion, instead of protecting and assisting the most vulnerable in society, euthanasia would legalise their state-sanctioned killing.
  • Victoria, Australia’s euthanasia rates have been very concerning since legalisation in 2017. The Victorian Premier thought there would be 1 per month, there are on average two a week. 
  • Despite Victoria and other places boasting of “safeguards” the truth is euthanasia of any kind is never safe. No jurisdiction where euthanasia has been legalised has been able to safeguard against wrongful deaths, which include deaths caused by wrong diagnosis, wrong prognosis, patients being unaware of available treatment or having no access to palliative care, or coercion and elder abuse.
  • Palliative care and euthanasia are not complementary, as euthanasia typically cannibalises palliative care funding and resources. 
  • When euthanasia was legalised in Western Australia last year, an amendment to give people in the regions the same access to palliative care as those in metropolitan areas was defeated. Similarly, since the legalisation of euthanasia in Victoria in 2017, the palliative care budget has decreased in real terms.
  • If euthanasia was legalised, any terminally ill patients, who need love and care, would feel pressure – whether real or imagined – to do “the right thing” and request euthanasia so they are not “a burden on their family”.  We must protect the most vulnerable amongst us, which includes the elderly, disabled and / or terminally ill. 
  • Euthanasia can be the end result of economic rationalism at its worst, as it’s far cheaper to prescribe poison for people than to set up a world-class palliative care system for the ill. We can’t let government’s get away with killing people to save money.

DEBUNKING SOME OF THE EUTHANASIA LOBBY'S RHETORIC