Thursday, November 25, 2010

Nitschke is encouraging people to come to him for death, as he laments the defeat of the euthanasia bill in South Australia

On Wednesday evening, November 24 2010, a bill to legalize euthanasia in South Australia was defeated by a voices vote. The sponsor of the bill, Greens member Mark Parnell, suggested that the vote, if recorded, would have been 12 - 9 against legalizing euthanasia.

Nitschke stated to the Sky News that many people will turn to him to aid their suicide. He said:
he expected a rise in the number of elderly people actively seeking their own options for a peaceful death by either travelling overseas to obtain the best euthanasia drugs or by using one of several mail order services.

'We see this phenomena at Exit every time legislation is defeated,'

Nitschke isn't confident that a bill being presented in the legislature next year will have much hope of passing. The Sky news reported:
In South Australia, the legislative attention will now turn to parliament's lower house where an independent MP will introduce another voluntary euthanasia bill in the new year.

But Dr Nitschke said that unless lessons were learnt form the most recent experience, that legislation was also destined to fail.

'Unless there are some lessons learnt from this experience and changes made, it's hard to hold out much hope for the voluntary euthanasia legislation to be presented to the SA lower house next year,' he said.

Nitschke should be sure of at least one thing. That the group HOPE will continue to defeat the euthanasia lobby in Australia.

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