Page 4388 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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medical institutions or others to abuse the opportunity for euthanasia. That is a very real concern. Nobody is immune from errors of judgment, and in certain circumstances deliberate acts which abuse a power to administer euthanasia must be expected.
I understand that in different institutions in Holland very different rates of euthanasia exist. Is that because particular people go to particular institutions in order to exercise this right or is it because different doctors or different institutions view this power in a different way? It seems to me that that is a very real question that has to be answered before anyone could seriously propose that euthanasia become an instrument of policy in the ACT.
I certainly would be very anxious to understand what restrictions could be placed on the community to prevent those sorts of abuses occurring, and I suspect that in many cases it is not possible to impose restrictions of that kind. Mr Moore, for example, earlier today was "Hear, hear-ing" the immense pressure on the public hospitals of the ACT, bemoaning that fact. Are we absolutely certain that doctors who faced pressure on beds in a hospital or a nursing home, or whatever, would not on occasions choose to use euthanasia as a device to provide some relief from their problems? People might think that is far-fetched. There have been allegations of just that happening in instances where euthanasia is available, and I suggest that some study of the literature emanating from Holland would be very useful.
I understand that the group most opposed in general to these proposals, to the idea of euthanasia becoming an instrument of policy in our medical system, is the doctors themselves. I understand that the AMA, nationally at least, has expressed very strong reservations about policies of this kind. I look forward to those in this community proposing euthanasia getting in touch with doctors and finding out what the practical difficulties would be in allowing such a policy to be used in this Territory.
I am gravely concerned about this proposal. I, for one, would consider its adoption a very marked decline in the standards our community adopts with respect to life. I believe that the Reverend Tom Wright, of St Augustine's parish in Farrer, summed up very well the implications of this policy when he said that it would "enable the killing of selected Canberra citizens". He went on:
The Labor proposal -
he was talking about it in the context of the ALP policy then announced -
is deceptively benign but morally bankrupt. It is superficially compassionate but murderously destructive.
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