End of life health care is expensive but euthanasia is cheap.
Euthanasia for mentally ill and disabled people is the latest shift in the goal posts advocates want legislated.
I kid you not.
This has been recommended by the Queensland Law Reform Commission for a bill to be introduced by the Palaszczuk Labor government next week.
It is all the more reason why New South Wales politicians should steer well clear of the green-left leaning independent MP Alex Greenwich’s push to impose euthanasia here.
Euthanasia advocates scoff at the idea there is a slippery slope, all-the-while they are applying grease to it.
The QLRC’s draft bill is a radical departure from previous rhetoric of euthanasia advocates. They have always stressed it should only be available under strict safeguards and only for terminally ill people suffering intractable pain.
If kept to this definition that of course would mean virtually no-one would ask for euthanasia where palliative care was properly funded, according to palliative care practitioners.
But palliative care is expensive and euthanasia is cheap.
The QLRC said of its push for euthanising the mentally ill and disabled: “This approach recognises that suffering is a personal experience, and … may take various forms. It respects the person’s autonomy, reflects a person-centred approach to care and is consistent with the value of reducing suffering.”
But we don’t take this approach to conventional suicide prevention.
Someone who is suffering from mental illness might tragically take their own life but now it appears euthanasia advocates seek to allow them to have the doctor kill them instead.
What this means for our society’s suicide prevention efforts is anyone’s guess in a country where the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 44 is suicide.
After her government facilitated the passing of abortion-to-birth laws, Premier Gladys Berejiklian vowed there would be no more conscience votes during this term of parliament.
The CDP urges her to keep this promise and for the Coalition to drop the idea of euthanasia altogether.
Lyle Shelton is Director of Campaigns and Communications for the Christian Democratic Party. The Reverend Honourable Fred Nile MLC has nominated Lyle to succeed him in the NSW Parliament when he retires in November. To keep in touch with Lyle and the CDP, sign up here.