Legislation to allow for euthanasia to take place in Tasmania has been voted down for the third time in less than a decade.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tasmania’s lower house defeated the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill on Wednesday night, with eight members voting in favour and 16 against.
Politicians were given a conscience vote for the debate and many took the opportunity to share personal stories and convey the tragic losses of countless others.
Franklin MHA Nic Street was the only Liberal member to support the bill, standing alongside Labor members Lara Giddings, Rebecca White, Michelle O’Byrne and Scott Bacon, and Greens members Cassy O’Connor, Andrea Dawkins and Rosalie Woodruff.
The bill was co-sponsored by Ms Giddings and Ms O’Connor.
Earlier in the day, a midday rally on Parliament House lawns attracted hundreds of people in support of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill while a petition signed by more than 800 people, tabled by government minister Rene Hidding, expressed opposition.
In her speech, Ms Giddings quoted Dr Heather Dunn who said in a letter that she was still haunted by not being able to give patients a dignified death through being put in a situation where state laws and her conscience were in conflict.
She said there were strict provisions within the bill to protect vulnerable people, adding that to do nothing was a form of elder abuse and discrimination.
Ms Giddings said no patient or practitioner would feel compelled to go through the assisted dying process, that the pathway could only be accessed once all other options were exhausted, and that the patient must have a serious, incurable medical condition with no prospect of cure or recovery.
She said while the Australian Medical Association had an official policy to oppose euthanasia, a recent survey showed that just half of the doctors surveyed were against euthanasia.
“But ultimately this bill is about the patients and there are hundreds of stories of people taking their own lives because they can not bare the pain and suffering anymore,” Ms Giddings said.
Ms O’Connor said that people were experiencing desperate and lonely deaths through not having another option available to them.
She said both health professionals and patients were legally better protected through the bill.
“Under the law as it stands, people suffering excruciating and incurable pain that palliative medicine cannot salve are vulnerable to prolonged agony and a terrible death,” Ms O’Connor said.
“The question is what are we as lawmakers going to do about that?”
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the bill sanctioned suicide.
“This bill will create a different group of tragedies to those that have already been shared,” he said.
Mr Ferguson targeted the language used by euthanasia proponents, saying that the term ‘voluntary assisted dying’ wasn’t an honest representation – calling it mercy killing and assisted suicide instead.
He said provisions within the bill could be exploited to facilitate death tourism, that decisions relied upon subjective judgments of patients and doctors, and that a decision to pursue euthanasia as an end-of-life option did not need to be made by a patient’s regular treating doctor.
But Mr Street said he did not need anymore reassurance to support the bill.
“I believe that the safeguards in the bill are satisfactory,” he said.
“What I would like, and what the proponents of this bill would like, is for the onus to be placed back in the hands of the individual to make that decision.”
Ms White expressed support for the bill, saying that people deserved to have control of their own bodies and highlighted that the process was completely voluntary.
She said there were adequate safeguards against exploitation and the choice it allowed brought comfort to the sick and dying.
Premier Will Hodgman did not support the bill, saying he had “grave reservations” about the bill’s efforts to ensure vulnerable people would be protected.
“I am personally very confronted by it and heavily conflicted by it – I have every empathy and sympathy for those approaching end of life,” Mr Hodgman said.
“I am concerned about the nature of assisted dying being available to those with a non-terminal illness and those at a young age.
“I don’t believe that the bill in its current form is worthy or can adequately secure my support.”
Ms O’Byrne said she would support the bill and the protections required to make assisted dying a “last-resort option”.
“It is a carefully constructed and considered piece of legislation that ensures that people in the most intolerable of conditions are not forced to live lives of an unimaginable pain,’ Ms O’Byrne said.
“No matter how wonderful our palliative care system, no matter how wonderful the advances in medical technology, there are people who, regardless of what support they are given, continue to suffer pain.”
Deputy Premier and Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said the bill did not reflect his own personal values around end of life and he could not support it.
“For me, euthanasia really does go against the grain, it doesn’t reflect my values in terms of that commitment I have for looking out for the more vulnerable in our community,” he said.
Resources Minister Guy Barnett was strongly against the bill, telling Parliament the bill was "ill-conceived” and delivered a “less-caring, less-compassionate, and less-loving society”.
“It’s a seriously flawed, inconsistent and ambiguous bill, it lacks adequate safeguards,” Mr Barnett said.
Mr Hidding labelled the bill “pro-suicide”.
“I believe we’re walking into a minefield with this legislation, heading to a genuine public policy danger zone,” Mr Hidding said.
Similar dying with dignity bills were defeated previously in the Tasmanian Parliament in 2009 and 2013.