The Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is delaying consideration of euthanasia laws until next year giving pro-lifers an opportunity to express your opposition to euthanasia.

Mrs Tighe, President of Right to Life Australia, said, "Ms Palaszczuk's latest embracing of the 'better off dead' principle which has followed the 2018 passage of an abortion till birth bill clearly illustrates her contempt for the value of every human life."

"It is obvious," continued Mrs Tighe, "this latest attack on human life is yet another example of how Labor in Australia has become a party of social engineering as we have seen in Victoria and Western Australia with the passage of their euthanasia bills."

During the recent election campaign, the Queensland Premier even promised to fast track debate of the euthanasia bill by February, before the Queensland Law Reform Commission has even lodged its report in March! Clearly the Queensland Labor Government believes assisted suicide is electorally popular. Read more on this issue, including pre election comments by Brisbane's Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge, here (only available to The Australian online subscribers).

If you live in Queensland, we urge you to contact your member of the Legislative Assembly (lower house) in the state Parliament and express your opposition to any form of euthanasia/assisted suicide. At the time of writing (November 2020), election results are yet to be completely finalised, however existing members contact details can be found here. If you are not aware of which electorate you are in, click here.

Euthanasia deaths in Victoria under the Euthanasia Act passed in 2017 are 10 times greater than Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews predicted! 

The latest Victorian Euthanasia Figures (January to June 2020) reveal that 124 Victorians were either executed by doctors or were victims of doctor assisted suicides in just the first year of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' Euthanasia Act.  When Premier Andrews was debating the “Bill to Kill” he stated maybe 12 Victorians would die under his bill in its first year of operation.  

The Victorian government's 'Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board Report of operations January–June 2020' is both frightening and confronting.

As the months pass, more and more Victorian people are either being executed by doctors or are falling victim to doctor assisted suicides.

Tragically Mr Andrews has been proven wrong. Even twelve deaths would have been twelve too many. The numbers being 10 times his prediction is cause for deep sorrow. Dishonest or not, Mr. Andrews is now publically revealed as having misled Victorians to get his death dealing bill passed. The big numbers can numb us to the grim reality!
We need to focus on the one death of one person under his Euthanasia Act. 

One person being executed by a doctor is a total horror.

Simply think of one doctor looking at one patient and deciding that the patient is better off dead. A doctor never kills a patient unless the doctor acting as “judge” decides the patient would be “better off dead” and so be a candidate for execution. Having made that decision the doctor then executes the patient.  That is the grim reality of Mr. Andrews’ Euthanasia Act.

Until Mr. Andrews’ Euthansia Act legalised doctors to prescribe poison for patients, all assisted suicides in Victoria were serious crimes.
Doctors may now prescribe poison for patients who take the poison to kill themselves in what is an act of doctor assisted suicide.
Victoria valiantly tries to reduce the number of suicides. All assisted suicides are still serious crimes, except for Mr. Andrews’ doctor assisted suicides.
Now is the time to protest one assisted suicide by one patient using poison prescribed by one doctor. Then we can protest the executions of many patients.  The legalisation of doctor assisted suicide leaves a patient vulnerable to elder abuse, coercion or unreasonable fears stoked by horror stories in the media about dreadful deaths.

Let’s get the grim facts on the executions and the doctor assisted suicides out to all Victorians.

• Calls to any “Talkback Radio” shows on 3AW (693 AM)
  • Open Line: 03 96 900 693
  • Outside Melbourne Open Line: 13 13 32
• Or calls/SMS to ABC Radio Melbourne (774 AM)
  • Talkback: 1300 222 774
  • SMS: 0437 774 774
• Are a great way to reach Victorians. Just be natural and say what you think!
• Letters to the Herald Sun, The Age or regional papers reach many people.
• Short letters, under 100 words have the best chance to be published.

by EUGENE AHERN

Links to reading material:

Report on euthanansia "Operations"

Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board Report of operations January–June 2020

Australian Care Alliance: More Questions than Answers

https://www.australiancarealliance.org.au/more_questions_than_answers_latest_victorian_report

TASMANIANS - Act Now to stop Patient Killing!

• Tasmanian MP Mike Gaffney (IND) MLC introduced his euthanasia bill [End Of Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill 2020] into the Legislative Council on 27/8/20.  The bill will be debated on 15 September 2020.
• The bill, if passed, will be a passport to suicide.
• Unlike in Victoria and WA which now allow euthanasia for the terminally ill, this bill extends eligibility to a much wider group in the community.
• It will be applied to a whole range of incurable medical conditions:
  • e.g. diabetes,
  • heart disease,
  • arthritis and
  • injuries caused by accidents e.g. paraplegia, quadriplegia - valiant people we admire at the Paralympic Games.
• Legalised euthanasia was passed in the Victorian Parliament in 2017 and in Western Australia in 2019. Already, in Victoria we have statistics available for the number of people who have been killed by assisted suicide or by lethal injection from the doctor.
• The first year’s statistics are alarming! More than 50 people ended their lives under the scheme between June and December 2019. It is ironic that the government is otherwise working hard to lower suicide rates in the community.
• Already, barely a year after passing the bill, Victorian news outlets e.g. “The Age” are canvassing to allow more people to be eligible for euthanasia.

The following will be permitted under the Tasmanian bill:

• A person does not have to be terminally ill to be eligible.
• Death does not need to be imminent.
• A person needs to reside in Tasmania for only 12 months to be eligible.
• The approval to die process can be as short as four days!
• No need for a doctor who specialises in the patient’s condition to sign off on the approval.
• Doctors are able to initiate a conversation about euthanasia with patients.

TAKE ACTION: CONTACT YOUR 6 REPRESENTATIVES!

“We must care for people not kill them!”

Please contact your 6 MPs: [Legislative Council (1 to contact) & House of Assembly (5 to contact)]

• • Write a short hand-written letter to your MPs or
  • Visit in person – make an appointment or “drop in” to your MPs’ offices or
  • Phone MPs’ offices. If unavailable, ask for your message to be written down or
  • Email your MPs (last option). NB Letters and visits preferred.

Legislative Council

There are 15 divisions –
[Derwent, Elwick, Hobart, Huon, Launceston, McIntyre, Mersey, Montgomery, Murchison, Nelson, Pembroke, Prosser, Rosevears, Rumney, Windermere].

You have 1 MP to contact

FIRST- click to Check the name of your electoral division
Click to find the name of your Legislative Council member
Or phone: (03) 6212 2300

House of Assembly

There are 5 divisions (Bass, Braddon, Clark, Franklin & Lyons). Each division has 5 MPs.
You have 5 MPs to contact. 
Check the name of your division
Click to find your 5 House of Assembly members
Or phone: (03) 6212 2200

Tell your MPs “We must care for people not kill them!”

For letterwriting: Check the facts here

For more information: Margaret Tighe 0417 338 961

The introduction of a euthanasia bill by MP Mike Gaffney MLC in Tasmania rings alarm bells.   Will Tasmania heed the danger as shown by Victoria's euthanasia toll - already surpassing government predictions?

Alarmingly - the death of 52 Victorians in 6 months under the Andrews' government's assisted suicide act far exceeds the prediction of the likely deaths in that passage of time according to the Victorian government.

Medical group Australian Care Alliance highlights these figures in their analysis "Victorian deaths from assisted suicide hit rate that took Oregon 14 years."  They document the sharp increase in the number of Victorians who have had their lives ended after the first six months of operation of the so-called ‘voluntary assisted dying' legislation.

So much for the famous “safeguards”. This is an example of what can and will occur once the genie is out of the bottle as has been the case in those countries like Holland and Belgium that have been practising euthanasia for some years now.

A Dutch physician friend of mine - the late Dr Karel Gunning of Rotterdam - once told me this alarming story:

An oncologist friend of his was treating a woman dying of lung cancer. He recommended that she would be much more comfortable in hospital. She refused to go because she was scared she would be given euthanasia. Her doctor assured her he would never do that so she reluctantly agreed to be hospitalised.

As a result she was more comfortable.

One weekend her doctor was off duty. When he returned he found his patient was not in her bed. “Oh” said the junior doctor – “I gave her euthanasia. She only had a few more weeks to live and we needed the bed!”

It is interesting to note in September 2015 the British House of Commons voted overwhelmingly 3:1 (330:118) against euthanasia. (Assisted Dying [No. 2] Bill [11/9/2015])

The main argument against the legislation that carried the day was that it was too dangerous. In this the MPs were influenced by Professor Theo Boer of The Netherlands who addressed them. “Don’t do it” he said.

“I was originally in favour of it and now I see it is far too dangerous.”

A leading outspoken critic of the bill at the time was Baroness Butler-Sloss - former Chief Justice of the Family Division of the British High Court. She said:

“The safeguards provide no real protection to the vulnerable and will fall apart should this become law…This bill will place many elderly, ill and vulnerable people in significantly more danger.”

See newspaper cutting from UK group

She also expressed concerns over the ability of doctors to judge whether abuse or coercion had taken place.

An article – published in The Australian newspaper 22/8/20 “John Olsen’s stepdaughter loses appeal over $2.2 million ‘gift’ from dying Mum” (The Australian subscribers only) is an illustration of the lesson from Baroness Butler-Sloss.

For judgment in this case view: Supreme Court of New South Wales - Court of Appeal Mentink v Olsen [2020] NSWCA 182 (21 August 2020)

Finally, on the matter of religion being used to oppose the bill. Legislators of no belief or a variety of beliefs prepare and vote for legislation governing the protection of human life - day in and day out – legislation relating to homicide, manslaughter, dangerous driving, assault and rape, proper care of children etc.

Why then is the matter of religious beliefs not called into question during debates on these matters? Because we are supposed to be a civilised society that should protect the weak and vulnerable.
Those who draw on these arguments merely wish to introduce sectarianism into the debate in a cheap attempt to win more support from those of no religious beliefs.

For more information Margaret Tighe 0417 338 961