Page 2897 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994
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consulted, I would be worried about it. But, as I said before, the Minister worked with not only the Catholic Church but also the Anglican Church to find that this would fit in with both their teachings.
Mr Kaine spoke about this Bill being before the house when it should not be. May I say, Madam Speaker, that the Liberals, to a woman and man, voted to send this Bill to a committee. Thus the Bill is before the house today. Believe you me, this, compared to Mr Moore's Bill of euthanasia on demand, to my mind, is a far better option. I agree with Mr Kaine that the community does not want euthanasia on demand. Although Mr Moore wants us to be a social laboratory for the rest of Australia, this will not happen with this Bill. Mr Moore may not be back in the next Assembly, Mr Kaine, so you could be quite wrong that in the next Assembly there will be changes made to this Bill to the effect of euthanasia on demand.
As I said before, life is precious. As I get older, I can understand that older folk would be worried that maybe a member of the family, God forbid, could arrange for a granny who was sick and was not sure what she was signing to sign a living will because she had become a nuisance. Maybe there was money involved. We have all heard those stories.
Mr Kaine, if Mr Moore is back in the next Assembly, he may not have the power to force the Liberals, as he does on many occasions, or as he does sometimes to the Labor Party, to vote on his social laboratory experiments. We all know the problems of a government in a minority; every one of us here knows that, particularly the Liberals. We only have to look at Mr Fahey in New South Wales. He has more grey hairs now than he ever had before he became Premier. There is not one of us here who in the most dreadful of pain would not wish ourselves dead. I can recall on occasions when I suffered from migraine headaches lying in a bed and really wishing that I could die; but I would loathe it if somebody were then to hasten me to where I did not want to go. In this case, it cannot be done. Unless I sign a living will, it cannot be done. It can be done only if I am being kept alive by artificial means.
A very dear friend of mine some years ago found that she had terminal cancer. She was in terrible pain from time to time, but on many occasions went into remission. There were occasions when she thought she had beaten the cancer. When she was in the most terrible pain I am quite sure that there were times when she possibly thought she could have had something given to her to send her on her way to a better place. However, when she was in remission she was very glad that she had not done that.
I think that, with a living will, it is not being given an injection; it is being kept out of pain to the best possible extent. If by chance this pain-killer is given in doses the body cannot handle and you do go to a better place, then I guess I would rather be kept out of pain when I knew that I was terminally ill and be given the drug that would keep me out of pain rather than have to suffer the pain. I would hate to be kept alive on a machine when my brain was completely dead. I think that to put my family through that would be terrible.
I think this Bill is an adequate Bill. It is accepted by the majority of the population and by the churches, as are the amendments. I congratulate the Minister on the fact that he has been able to come up with these amendments to this Bill from the committee's report.
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