For the third time in Tasmanian Parliament, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill is being debated on Wednesday.
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Earlier in the day, hundreds of people rallied outside Hobart’s Parliament House in support of legalising euthanasia.
But inside the house, the debate, in which every politician has a conscience vote, is expected to continue late into the night.
Bishop of Tasmania Richard Condie said throughout the debate, everyone was coming from a side of compassion for those who are suffering.
“It’s obviously a very emotional issue, there are people who care very deeply about the issues,” Bishop Condie said.
“Our particular concern is the risk that this bill puts to vulnerable Tasmanians, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill – it’s very existence puts those people at risk.
“Having this legislation in place provides an opportunity for them to end their life prematurely.”
Gideon Cordover spoke at the voluntary assisted dying rally, telling his own emotional story of his father, Robert, who lived with motor neurone disease, and took his own life.
“It is not for the well to dictate to the dying how much suffering they should endure,” Mr Cordover said.
“No one who is opposed to this motion would ever be forced to use it, they would never be compelled to use any of its provisions – not doctors, not nurses, not pharmacists, not preachers, not patients.
“All we ask is for tolerance, tolerance to let people like my dad, people who are informed, uncoerced, people like my dad who are fiercely independent, adult and of sound mind are are suffering intolerably from an incurable condition, let people like them have autonomy over their fate.”
Dying with Dignity president Margaret Sing said everyone deserved respect for their own choices around the end of their lives.
“We know that this is legislation whose time has well and truly come, in fact it’s way passed time,” Ms Sing said.
MORE TO COME