Thursday, 20 September 2018

Voluntary assisted dying

To the Legislative Assembly of Victoria:

The petition of residents of Victoria draws the attention of the house to:

1.   the inherent value of every human life;

2.   the fact that the state of Victoria has legislated to end the execution of convicted criminals;

3.   the state of Victoria has promoted campaigns to reduce the large number of suicides in this state;

4.   prior to the passage of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 to assist a person in an act of suicide was a felony in Victoria;

5.   the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 legalises doctor-prescribed suicide in which a doctor facilitates a patient’s act of self-killing, or suicide, by prescribing a lethal poison which the patient takes to kill himself or herself;

6.   the act legalises state-sanctioned extrajudicial executions of patients by doctors when patients cannot kill themselves by suicide.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Assembly of Victoria introduce and pass a bill for an act to repeal at the first possible opportunity the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017.