Page 3205 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 1994
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The second thing Mr Moore mentioned was the common law. In the existing common law there is a possibility of something happening in the future. I suggest that that is always possible in any law that someone passes. Mr Moore then reflected on the fact that passing this law gives us an opportunity to remove that ambiguity. That may be the case if this law stands ad infinitum, but some other Assembly may amend the law that we pass today. What I am saying about that argument is that there is always a possibility for any part of that law to be changed.
Mr Moore then went on to talk about comments made by Mrs Karen Clark. Once again, I agree with Mr Moore. We all know that Mrs Clark has an LLB, a BA from Melbourne University, and an LLM from Harvard, so we can assume that she knows something about the law. We can also assume, seeing that she is passionately interested in the area of euthanasia, that euthanasia law is something about which she has some sort of expertise. Acknowledging that Mrs Clark's views may be coloured by the fact that she is passionately against euthanasia, she makes some very salient points. I will reserve some of the comments that Mrs Clark makes, because I think that the most important comments she makes are about clause 22, which we will have a debate on when it comes on. Mr Moore went on, in response to Mr Kaine, to talk about Bishop Pat Power's views on this issue.
Mr Moore: I just read them.
MR DE DOMENICO: I have spoken to Bishop Pat Power, Mr Moore. I also read the Canberra Times, I have to say to you, and Bishop Power's No. 1 priority would be to have no legislation.
Mr Moore: I accept that.
MR DE DOMENICO: You accept that; but no-one has mentioned that yet, so I thought I would mention it. Bishop Power quite categorically said that his preference would be no legislation whatsoever. Bishop Power also went on to say - I agree with him - that relieving pain through medication is very Christian, very admirable. I think you will find that not one member of this Assembly would disagree with that point of view. While we do not disagree with that point of view, my knowledge of the situation is that that is exactly what happens now.
Mr Moore: No.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Moore, in my opinion, all doctors who are doing the right thing are relieving patients' pain right now through medication. All doctors are relieving patients' pain through medication. We all know that sometimes, by alleviating that pain through the administration of a lawful medication, some patients die. That goes on, I believe, every day, and probably it will continue to go on. We cannot accept the argument that it is only by this legislation that we are going to get to a situation where pain relief through medication is going to be effective, because it is happening already.
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