Displaying items by tag: physician assisted suicide

Branka van der Linden writes on Victoria's dystopian assisted-suicide law. This article first appeared on the HOPE: No Euthanasia website and is reproduced here with permission. The architects of Victoria’s euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation have joined together to write a playbook for other states wanting to push through euthanasia and other “social change” laws. The seven “experts” appointed by the Victorian Health Minister to advise on the implementation of euthanasia and assisted suicide are now using that “expertise” to show others how to get public support for “changes to dominant policy and community practices.”

According to the Sydney Morning Herald,  euthanasia advocate, Brian Owler thinks many of Australia's MPs are 'out of touch' with the desires of the public to be given access to assisted killing. However, pro-life senators tell us that the majority of submissions to a recent federal inquiry were advocating for life, rather than for euthanasia. Below are portions of the presentations given by three Australian senators who voted against the recent Leyonhjelm bill which would have allowed the territories to pass euthanasia legislation.

[The Mother Situation is a brilliant short film by Matt Day that explores three siblings and their plans to be rid of their ailing mother and to access her estate. It's a side-splitting comedy about a very dark subject that has implications for issues such as euthanasia, assisted suicide and elder abuse. The short film closes with the three accomplices waiting in their (now deceased) mother's lounge. A new character enters who we quickly learn is a real estate agent. As he provides an assessment of the value of their mother's property, the film closes at the siblings' jubilation. Michael Griffith's play, The Magnolia Tree is as far from a comedy as one can get. Similar to The Mother Situation, the play centres around three siblings, an ailing mother, conflicting directions, motives and emotions and ends with a 'kill or care' decision made by the audience. Again, it's all about the money.

The push to legalise euthanasia continues in the West. The Benelux countries led the way with legalisation (the Netherlands, 2002; Belgium 2002; Luxembourg, 2008), and some other states and countries have followed suit since then. While euthanasia is presented as something compassionate, it is anything but. Plenty of helpful resources on this are available, but here I want to mention two new resources which are worth being aware of. The first is a helpful piece in today’s Weekend Australia by Paul Kelly, and the second is a soon to be released book by myself. [This book is now available - Ed.]