Overwhelmed and exhausted: Qld hospitals in crisis
In an honest interview about the crisis currently facing the state’s hospitals, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has described the strain on medical staff and hospital resources, and foreshadowing the worst is yet to come.
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Murder acquittal raises serious questions
New South Wales woman Barbara Eckersley has been found not guilty of murder, and guilty only of the lesser charge of manslaughter, after putting lethal drugs in the soup given to her mother.
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Calls for expansion already underway in WA
Before the West Australian euthanasia and assisted suicide regime has even been implemented, activists are already trying to see its reach expanded.
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Canadian euthanasia regime failing to report adequately
When Canada’s Supreme Court delivered its judgment legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2015, it recognised that there could be risks of misuse and harm in doing so, but considered that “a properly administered regulatory regime [would be] capable of protecting the vulnerable from abuse or error.” It endorsed the view that risks to vulnerable patients of misuse of the system could be “very substantially minimised through a carefully designed system that imposes strict limits that are scrupulously monitored and enforced.” (my emphasis)
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Where is the choice for residents of Western Sydney?
There are thousands of patients living and being treated in the Penrith, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury regions of western Sydney who are nearing the end of their lives.
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Laws to protect the vulnerable under attack
In 2005, a law was passed by federal parliament aimed at protecting people from those who would use the online environment to incite someone to suicide, promote suicide, or instruct someone how to commit suicide.
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“Woefully unprepared”: palliative care experts
As New Zealand prepares to introduce euthanasia and assisted suicide, critical questions are being asked, exposing significant gaps in planning that will put vulnerable people further at risk.
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ACT government’s euthanasia call ignores risk to Indigenous Canberrans
The ACT government has joined forces with the Northern Territory government to “threaten” the Federal Government, demanding that it overturn the Territories bill which was enacted in 1997 to prevent the territory governments from enacting euthanasia laws (referred to as the Andrews Bill).
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It’d be cheaper to help them live
The architect of Tasmania’s deadly euthanasia laws, Mike Gaffney MLC, estimated that ten Tasmanians would use the laws each year to access lethal drugs to cause their premature death.
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Slap on the wrist for Queensland’s ‘angel of death’
Queensland is looking to legalise euthanasia this year, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk famously making a pre-election commitment to fast-track the deadly legislation through Parliament, even prior to the draft legislation being due from the Queensland Law Reform Commission.
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