Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tasmanian premier admits that her euthanasia bill may allow death tourism.

This article was written by Paul Russell, the leader of HOPE Australia and published on his blog on September 30, 2013.

Paul Russell
By Paul Russell

The Hobart Mercury reported that Tasmanian Premier, Lara Giddings admits that death tourism is a possibility if her euthanasia & assisted suicide bill become law.

The Premier is euther deluded or ignorant of her own bill when she says not only that the bill is for terminally ill patients, whom she says would not be able to make the trip to Tasmania, and that it would take a month of residency to qualify.

The terms of the legislation would make it possible for a new Tasmanian resident to begin the process towards euthanasia or assisted suicide after only a few days in the fair state. Nor does the bill only apply to terminal illness - others with a progressive illness may also qualify.

The Premier is quoted in the article as saying: 
“When you think about the sort of person who would be eligible to go through the system, these are very, very sick people and it would be a huge effort for them to just uproot from other parts of Australia to move to Tasmania and participate in this process.” 
But people should remember the dogged determination of a man called Max Bell who, though terminally ill and extremely sick, drove his taxi to Darwin from Broken Hill in a vain attempt to access the Northern Territory's then euthanasia Act. No, Premier, it is not difficult to foresee a trade in one way tickets to Hobart.

Then there's this admission:
“If they did and they could prove that they had become Tassie citizens or residents I should say then they comply. They are part of our system.” 
We've checked; proof of residency in terms of the bill is very simple and for one determined to line up the dominoes, the whole process could be over and done with (move through to death) within two weeks.

If the Premier doesn't understand her own bill, how can anyone be expected to support it?

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