Her private member’s bill might have been voted down on Wednesday, but Franklin Labor MHA Lara Giddings says champions of voluntary assisted dying lost the battle but not the war.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was the third time in eight years Parliament voted on legalising euthanasia.
This time, eight MHAs voted to pass the bill, while 16 voted against it.
If it had passed, the legislation would have made Tasmania the first state in Australia to make voluntary assisted dying legal.
Nic Street, one of Ms Giddings’ Franklin Liberal counterparts, was the sole member of the government who voted in support of the bill.
Ms Giddings described Mr Street as a “hero”, saying she would never forget his “courage”.
She said she was “devastated and angry” about the result, but that she would not stop fighting for the cause.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, co-sponsored by Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, sought to provide adults with “intolerable and unrelievable suffering due to advanced incurable and irreversible medical conditions” the option of ending their life with medical assistance.
Braddon Liberal MHA Roger Jaensch moved a motion to establish a public inquiry into the bill’s finer points, but it was defeated, which Mr Jaensch said was “particularly surprising”.
“Hundreds of people wrote to me supporting voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill people, but the actual bill applied to anyone with a serious, incurable and irreversible medical condition,” he said.
“There is a big difference.”
But Ms O’Connor said the bill was “well-drafted, robust and strongly safeguarded”.
She said the move to refer the bill to a parliamentary committee for a public inquiry was “the political equivalent of destroying any chance for reform in this term of government”.
“Every day the Tasmanian Parliament does not deal with this issue is another day of suffering ... for people for whom palliation does not and cannot provide relief,” Ms O’Connor said.
The Labor government in Victoria has flagged its intention to introduce voluntary assisted dying legislation later in 2017.