The Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice Tasmania state convenor has welcomed the proposed Assisted Dying Bill to be debated in parliament this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Launceston-based retired general practitioner Dr Scott Bell said the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2016, co-sponsored by Greens leader Cassy O’Connor and former Premier Lara Giddings, was a “good bill” that was measured and careful.
Dr Bell said the legislation had plenty of checks and balances to ensure it was applied appropriately.
He said the Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice Tasmania had written a letter to all the Tasmanian lower house members critiquing the bill “purely from a medical perspective”.
“We feel it’s a good bill because it builds on the two previous bits of legislation that have gone through Tasmania, but it also distills out legislation from the other states and the other countries as well,” Dr Bell said.
“We feel that this current bill … is a very sensible, very well-considered and very balanced bill with a lot of checks and balances in place.”
Dr Bell said doctors who support assisted dying saw the bill and their position as complementary to palliative care and the current hospital system, not opposed to it.
Ms Giddings said the bill was “robust” and “thoroughly-consulted”.
“The bill we’re putting forward is … one with lots of protections in their for vulnerable people, so let’s see this happen, let’s stop seeing people suffering in this community,” she said.
The Australian Christian Lobby’s Tasmanian director Mark Brown has expressed concerns about the genuinely voluntary nature of any deaths that may occur if the legislation passes, saying the “euthanasia door should remain firmly shut”.
RELATED