In an important article outlining inequalities in access to palliative care in regional Victoria compared to Melbourne, the Minister for Health Jill Hennessy is reported as having “rejected suggestions that patients suffering from poor access to palliative care were more likely to opt for voluntary assisted dying.” Continue reading

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017, passed its second reading in the Victorian Legislative Council on 3 November 2017 by a narrow margin of just 2 votes. In the Legislative Assembly the Minister for Health and Attorney General knocked back every proposed amendment, essentially asserting that the Bill, as drafted, is perfect and cannot be usefully improved. Continue reading

This past week, the World Medical Association, representing more than 10 million physicians, turned its focus on the threat to human life in Australia by issuing a statement urging Victorian MPs to block the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill:  Continue reading

The key to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 is the voluntary assisted dying substance, defined in Clause 3 of the Bill to mean “a poison or controlled substance or a drug of dependence specified in a voluntary assisted dying permit for the purpose of causing a person's death”. Continue reading

This blog was originally posted at: http://www.choiceillusion.org/2017/10/margaret-dore-analysis-opposing.html Margaret Dore Analysis Opposing Victoria Euthanasia Bill  To view this analysis as a pdf, click the following links containing, an index; a memo; and an appendix I.  INTRODUCTION I am an attorney in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal.[1] I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Last year, I met with a parliamentary delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, to discuss Oregon’s law and related issues. Continue reading

In a moving article, a cancer doctor recently voiced her concerns about the dangers of offering assisted suicide to patients. Director of the Familial Cancer Centre at Monash Health, Dr Marion Harris describes the difficulties her patients have experienced, and how many of them wanted to give up at some point in their diagnosis, but persevered. Continue reading

Advocates for euthanasia and assisted suicide are blinded by a misdirected sense of compassion, to the point where they cannot see the underlying implications of Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Suicide Bill 2017. Instead of considering the logical outcome of such legislation, they propel it along using emotional arguments, playing on people’s understandable fear of death.  Continue reading

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