Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has issued a statement warning against the passage of Victoria’s assisted suicide bill. His remarks apply equally to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill which is before the New South Wales Legislative Council. Continue reading

After a marathon overnight debate, in which the Minister for Health dismissed out of hand each one of the well-thought out amendments proposed to make her Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 just a little bit safer for vulnerable Victorians, it passed the Legislative Assembly 47 votes to 37 on Friday 20 October 2017. Continue reading

Candice Lewis is a 25 year old Canadian woman who happens to have cerebral palsy. In September 2016 Candice went to the emergency room at Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony after having seizures. The doctor told her she was very sick and likely to die soon. He offered her assisted suicide. Continue reading

We, the undersigned Australian Palliative Medicine professionals, do not support the introduction of medically assisted suicide or euthanasia in the states of Victoria and New South Wales. We are also writing to address claims made about Palliative Care by assisted suicide advocates, including Mr Andrew Denton, to the public and in the media. We do not intend this response as an attack on Mr Denton, and wish him well with a good recovery in his present illness. Continue reading

From all around Australia, 580 health professionals have signed a statement rejecting assisted suicide and euthanasia, reaffirming the role of doctors, nurses and allied health as saving lives and providing real care and support for those who are suffering. Read their statement below: Continue reading

Professor John Keown, a leading researcher and writer on international euthanasia practice and ethics, has slammed the End of Life Choices report from the Victorian Parliament’s Legal and Social Issues Committee as well as the subsequent Ministerial Advisory Panel’s final report were both “seriously  flawed”. Continue reading

On 5 October 2017 the High Court of Justice in England dismissed a claim by Noel Conway seeking to carve out an exception to the law prohibiting all assisted suicide. Continue reading

Washington State’s Death With Dignity Act, based on Oregon’s, came into operation on 9 March 2009. The latest annual report with data from 2016 was published in September 2017. This latest data confirms that once assisted suicide is legalised use of it increases from year to year, seemingly without limit. Continue reading

In any profession, mistakes will be made – it’s human nature. However, when doctors estimate patients’ life expectancy, mistakes treated as truth can have grave consequences. For some, there is no “live and learn”. Continue reading

On 19 September 2017, just two days before assisted suicide bills (euphemistically called Voluntary Assisted Dying bills) were introduced respectively into the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Victorian Legislative Assembly, the American College of Physicians published its updated position paper on Ethics and the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide in its prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine. Continue reading