Page 2887 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994
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Mr Moore quite rightly said, as I think Mr Lamont said, that there is a moral issue as well. Unlike members opposite, on this issue we are allowed to vote according to conscience, and we will. Let me tell you that I do not care how Mrs Carnell or Mr Humphries or Mr Stefaniak or Mr Kaine or Mr Cornwell votes on this issue, because I know the way I am going to vote on this issue. I am going to reject Mr Moore's Bill and I am going to reject all the amendments, because I really do think we are wasting the time of this Assembly and of the people of the ACT by debating this sort of legislation when there are so many other issues that, I believe, the people who elected us to be in this place want us to debate.
MS SZUTY (11.29): Mr Deputy Speaker, in speaking to the Medical Treatment Bill I should say at the outset that until now I have not been directly involved in the protracted debate on euthanasia which has taken place during the life of this Assembly. In fairness to all members of the Assembly, I believe that I should make my position on this issue quite clear. My position is quite simply that I favour a stronger position on the right of individuals to choose to die than that which is outlined in this Bill. This position is consistent with the relevant health policies which the Michael Moore Independent Group took to the last Assembly election in 1992, and to remind members I will outline what they were:
The principle of respect and dignity for every person;
The premise that individuals should have as much control as possible over their own health choices; and
That euthanasia should remain on the agenda in order that a balance be found between respect for human life and the rights of those who wish not to continue suffering.
I still support these policies and, as my colleague Michael Moore has indicated, I will seek with him to bring these policies to fruition in the next Assembly.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the rationale for this Bill was given in the introduction, section 4.1, to the report of the Select Committee on Euthanasia into the Voluntary and Natural Death Bill 1993, a Bill that has since been discharged from the notice paper, in accordance with recommendation 2 of that same report. This introduction stated:
Although there was a great deal of opposition to the "voluntary death" provisions of the Voluntary and Natural Death Bill 1993 there was total support from witnesses appearing before the Committee for the right of a patient to die with dignity and for the right of a patient to request the withdrawal or withholding of medical treatment.
Mr Deputy Speaker, these are sentiments with which, in the main, I agree; but I believe that the point should be made that dignity and death do not often go together. Indeed, death could be regarded as the ultimate indignity. The process of dying is, on many occasions, a process of continual loss of dignity as patients become more dependent on nursing staff or carers and, at times, as increasing levels of pain override all
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