Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 434 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

I do not believe the fear campaign which is being run on this issue and which says that people will be coerced to undertake euthanasia by unscrupulous family members or medical staff. I think that is an outrageous fear campaign. It should be ignored and treated with contempt. This Bill contains protections. We have all had the opportunity over the last few years to consider this important issue. I have considered all the arguments and I have remained convinced that euthanasia legislation should be supported. I am happy to support the policy my party has developed and which I went to the last election in support of.

Another issue, I think, is important in the scheme of things. It has been suggested that we might postpone the decision or refer it to a referendum. I think it is important for us as representatives of the people of the ACT to send a strong message to those people in the Federal Parliament who are on the edge of making a decision about our right to make laws such as this. The best way to send that message is to pass this Bill today in principle. In fact, I think the only way to send a strong message is to pass this Bill in principle and to tell our fellow parliamentarians in the Federal Parliament that they ought not interfere with our right to pass legislation such as this. That right was given to this Territory in good faith and it should not be taken away by this sneaky backdoor move. That is what I think it is. There is an issue about whether this Territory has the right to make or not to make laws, which I think is one that all of us in this house support. If this Bill fails today or if it is deferred, we are really endorsing the Andrews Bill in the Federal Parliament.

I would like to return to the issue of euthanasia and repeat, Mr Speaker, that I think this is a piece of legislation which will be regarded by the overwhelming majority of the community as compassionate legislation. It gives us the chance to tell the community that we recognise the needs of those who might wish to make decisions to end their life, and that we view their decisions with compassion.

MR KAINE (11.09): Mr Speaker, for each of the last few years Michael Moore has asked this Assembly to pass a law which, however one may regard it, has the effect of decriminalising murder in certain circumstances. I know Michael to be a man of conscience and compassion, and I know he is of good intent; but equally I know that on this issue he is in error. I am not sure why this Assembly is having this debate today when, as Mr Berry has pointed out, in another place a Bill is soon to come to the vote and that Bill, if enacted, would deny this Assembly the power to enact Mr Moore's Bill and would invalidate laws of the Territories that decriminalise action by a medical professional to administer, at the request of an incurable patient, treatment to terminate not only the intolerable suffering which is afflicting the patient but also every other feeling of which that patient is capable. If that Bill does pass the Senate, and we can argue that, we are wasting our time here, whatever the outcome, and we would have done better to bide our time perhaps and await events across the lake before this debate took place.

Mr Speaker, we already have in the ACT a law expressed in terms very like those of Mr Moore's Bill. The Medical Treatment Act 1994 allows terminally ill persons suffering intolerable pain which the science of medicine has not yet learnt to alleviate to say, "Enough. Stop all treatment, or give me only what can make the suffering less intolerable and let nature have its way". That is a Bill that, in fact, Mr Moore introduced into this house, so he knows full well what it says. There is enormous compassion and dignity,

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .