Assisted suicide is not humane treatment

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 5 May 2013

On Thursday NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann introduced a bill to the NSW Parliament which she says would give terminally ill people the right to die.  This may seem the reasonable and humane thing to do. But it is not.

Do we really want the right to kill and be killed enshrined in NSW law?  Do we really want to endanger disabled people who cannot speak for themselves, and who may be seen as an unnecessary burden by their family or the state?

Can we be sure this proposed law will never be extended to include incapacitated patients?  Should we laugh off concerns of doctors who say, “This is not what we became doctors to do”?

Do we really believe that killing patients enhances human dignity?  Many NSW citizens say no to these questions, and it is time for politicians to hear their voices.  Say “No” to Cate Faehrmann’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill 2013.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.