The videos below are resources to help oppose the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide and to support measures that will make euthanasia and assisted suicide unthinkable.

Disability Advocates tell Victorian MPs why they oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia

Local and National Disability Advocates spoke out recently against the Andrews Government’s proposed assisted suicide and euthanasia bill at a Parliamentary Briefing.

They were supported from Britain by British TV Star, Liz Carr (read Liz’s article HERE)

The day began with a game of ‘Cards Against Humanity – assisted suicide version’ on the steps of Parliament House.

Once inside parliament, the testimonies were heard:

Sam Connor

“Disability and assisted suicide is incredibly inappropriate when put together.

…we think the whole idea is actually really rude and inappropriate. It's being marketed as something that's about death with dignity, and the idea of dignity is really problematic for us because a lot of us don't go to the toilet in the same way that other people do and it's not something about us being less dignified.”

“Those issues around the narrative that our lives are tragedies is a really, really big issue for us and they're the things that I don't think non-disabled people know.”

Jax Jacki Brown

“Currently we define (being a burden) based on fear and based on fear of the other, or fear of becoming disabled and what that would actually mean. And it's not actually often a lived experience of that person. It's based on this fear and these cultural narratives and representations of disability as a terrible tragedy, of disability as a burden of disability being better off dead than being disabled. And for me all those things play into our mental health, how we feel about ourselves; the access to services and supports that we might or might not have.”

Kelly Cox

“Please consider your decision from all angles and all perspectives, you have the power to decide whether people live or die. Please don't take that lightly. And it isn't only people with cancer who cannot access treatment and services, people with disability don't always have the same access to preventative health services as everyone else, a lot of the time this is because of lack of access.”

“So what I'm asking is that before you take steps to make sure that people can die with dignity, as we hear so often, that you first make sure that everyone has the same opportunity to access health services and live a life free from discrimination, whether that be systemic, attitudinal, or environmental.”

Note: The anonymous testimony discussed by Kelly can also be found HERE

Shakira Hussein

“I'm not seeing a huge difference around the type of language around those what are conventionally understood as suicides and tragic (and we should have tried to stop them and if only) and the kind of language around this kind of death and this kind of suicide (assisted suicide).”

“This (assisted suicide) has always been put in terms of individual rights, but it's not, it's putting more power in the hands of the state and it's putting more power in the hands of medical professionals, it's not really about empowering individuals.”

Liz Carr

• UK Comedian, TV star and disability activist, Liz Carr was in Melbourne recently for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
• She took time out to record this message to Victorians about assisted suicide.

Liz Carr's address to Victorian Parliamentarians on assisted suicide

• In March 2017, Liz Carr was in Melbourne for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. She took time out from preparations for her show: Assisted Suicide: The Musical to join local disability activist, Jax Brown, in addressing the state parliament.

June 2016 Protest at screening of 'Me Before You'

• Me Before You is a hollywood film that tells the story of a wealthy young man who acquires a disability and, eventually commits suicide at a Swiss Suicide facility rather then face life with a disability.
• Me Before You is a very negative protrayal of living with disability. It outraged people with disability across the globe who came out in force to protest at screenings across the world.
• This video was shot at the opening of the film in Mebourne Australia.

2014 HOPE Dinner - Margaret Somerville

• Margaret Somerville, AM, FRSC is the Samuel Gale Professor of Law at McGill University, as well as professor in the university's faculty of medicine and the founding director of the law faculty's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law.  Here she speaks on euthanasia, the risks it brings to the medical profession and the push for euthanasia in Canada and elsewhere that uses medicine as a 'cloak of respectability.'
• Recorded in high definition in front of a live audience at The HOPE Dinner, Adelaide, South Australia.