Voluntary Euthanasia

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:31): Due to my ongoing interest in the area of advanced care directives and voluntary euthanasia, I was very interested to read the most recent Australia 21 publication. Australia 21 is a non-profit research company that has put together yet another interesting publication—this latest one in February 2015—entitled 'Who speaks for and protects the public interest in Australia? Essays by notable Australians', the editors being Bob Douglas and Jo Wodak. I recommend this publication to members because there are a number of different challenging articles in that document.

One that certainly caught my eye was 'The challenging quest for a right to die' by Marshall Perron. Of course, members would be aware that Marshall Perron served in the Northern Territory parliament for 21 years and was elected as the chief minister in July 1988 and served in that position for eight years. During that time, he successfully introduced the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995. Four terminally ill Australians used the provisions in the act until the legislation was overturned by the federal parliament. Mr Perron points out that there have been 31 bills supporting the rights of the terminally ill introduced into state parliaments in 17 years, since the Northern Territory act was vetoed by the federal government. He says in the article:

Every time a bill is introduced, a well-resourced religious lobby launches a standard campaign of fear-mongering, distortion and innuendo that is seized upon by politicians of religious conviction seeking grounds to bury the proposal.

He goes on to say:

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) also opposes law reform despite acknowledging that satisfactory relief of suffering when dying cannot always be achieved and that doctors do occasionally hasten the death of terminally ill patients.

I would usually be loath to quote some of the outlets of the printed media, but I did read an important article recently in The Advertiser, on Saturday 14 March 2015, page 34, by Gregory Katz. The article talks about the death of the fantasy writer Sir and Dr Terry Pratchett at the age of 66 years from a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's disease. He said, 'Pratchett didn't shy away from the…public debate about assisted suicide.' In a 2010 lecture he said that he could live his remaining years more fully if he knew that he would be allowed to end his life before the disease claimed him. He said:

I have vowed that, rather than let Alzheimer's take me, I would take it. I would live my life as ever to the full and die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the 'Brompton cocktail' some helpful medic could supply. And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with Death.