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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-26 Daily Xml
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VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:57): Today in my grievance I want to applaud the most recent parliamentary intern who has been assigned to me, Anna-Kate Sutton from Flinders University. I also take the opportunity to thank Dr Clem McIntyre and, more recently, Associate Professor Hayden Manning for their work in the Parliamentary Internships Program. I think members will agree that this is a very useful program for us, particularly for backbenchers and, having been a shadow minister, I know that their work is really important.

It is also very interesting to try to explain to a parliamentary intern how the parliamentary system works. Despite the fact that most of the parliamentary interns that I have had have studied politics or voting behaviour or different topics like that, trying to understand how the Westminster system works in South Australia is really beyond that sort of study.

The work that I asked Anna-Kate Sutton to look into was legislative provisions for achieving a voluntary euthanasia system in South Australia. It was my view that, having looked at the very sad history in this state of trying to introduce progressive legislation of this sort, perhaps one of the ways of looking at the legislation was to build on the very good work that has been done in the past which eventuated in the legislation called the Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act 1995.

As I have said, I asked Anna-Kate Sutton to look at this because it seemed to me that, although there have been many attempts to try to introduce legislation—in fact, some five attempts to introduce voluntary euthanasia legislation—in South Australia, they have all come to nought. It is also interesting to note that, since Dr Such's most recent bill, Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2008—and I think it is the third one that he has introduced—which is bill No. 20 on our Notice Paper, Washington has become the second state in the US to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients seeking to hasten their death. Initiative 1,000 is referred to as a 'death with dignity' act and, in some cases, it is also described as an 'assisted suicide' measure.

I-1,000 is modelled on the decade-old Oregon law which permits terminally ill, competent adult residents of Washington, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. The measure protects doctors from being prosecuted under the state law forbidding anyone from aiding in the suicide attempt.

Of course, the Washington initiative has quite a history. In 1991, Washington voters rejected again what they called Initiative 119 which would have allowed doctors to write prescriptions to hasten death but, unlike the provision that has actually been introduced, it also would have allowed physicians to administer lethal injections to terminally ill patients who were not able to take the medication on their own.

Of course, having physicians assist people with a voluntary euthanasia process reflects the Netherlands and Belgian experience where physicians are actually involved as local physicians in the whole process of voluntary euthanasia. This is determined by the patient long before there is a need to make literally deathbed decisions.

I have argued long and hard that we need to have progressive legislation in South Australia, and my understanding is that this is supported by the majority of our community. It would be good to see some of the conservatives both in this place and the Legislative Council start listening to what people want in South Australia.

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