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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 447 ..

MR SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of the Year 10 legal studies group from Daramalan College. Welcome to your Assembly.

MR OSBORNE (12.03): Mr Speaker, I will be opposing this Bill. I thought I would start with that, just for Mr Moore's benefit.

Mr Moore: Damn! I thought I had you convinced.

MR OSBORNE: He nearly had me. I was very impressed with his speech last week, Mr Speaker. He nearly had me convinced, but not quite.

Mr Speaker, you have to admire Mr Moore's determination in again bringing forward legislation to allow the practice of voluntary active euthanasia in the ACT. Unfortunately, Mr Moore, like his Bill, has once again failed the people of Canberra. Shortly, I will explain why I believe that this is so. Before I do that, though, I would like to restate that the challenge for me in considering this Bill has been to look at the big picture. I have made no secret of the fact that I hold very strong personal views based on my own Christian beliefs, which naturally oppose this Bill. It would be very easy for me to get up here and just make a short statement based on those beliefs; but that would do nothing to convince those who do not have similar views. Instead, unlike Mr Moore, I will not be referring to any religious viewpoint during this debate and will concentrate instead on the obvious flaws within this Bill.

While on the point of making religious statements, Mr Speaker, I have at times been dumbfounded by some of the vitriolic attacks that Mr Moore has made over the past couple of years on those in this place who hold Christian beliefs. I cannot work out why Mr Moore supposes that he can instruct and ridicule those of us who hold Christian beliefs - beliefs which he does not hold himself - on how to live out our faith in day-to-day situations, when he is only observing from the sidelines. To me, that seems a lot like appointing him to the Super League judiciary. I would like to assure Mr Moore and his followers that those of us who hold religious beliefs are not genetically lacking, as he seems to suggest, in that our compassion gene has somehow been left out. On the contrary, Mr Speaker, I believe that the compassion of a religious person is heightened when they encounter human suffering and confront ethical boundaries such as those prescribed by this Bill.

Mr Speaker, when we are considering the possibility of bringing change to society, such as would be done by allowing active euthanasia, I think it is both necessary and important to examine the consequences of taking such an action, and I have tried to do this as objectively as possible. My first point, Mr Speaker, is that the legalisation of euthanasia sets up a range of pressures that bear upon the patient - no matter how long and hard Mr Moore and his friends deny it.

Care for the aged and terminally ill is an area of medical practice that is not in the limelight, and, unfortunately, too many doctors consider it to be unrewarding and not intellectually stimulating. It has been calculated in recent years that about one-third of our national health care expenditure goes to those older than 65. In the United States,

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