Bioethics Professor calls on Australian Senate to reject assisted dying

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Australian Senate was urged by a professor of Bioethics to reject the legalization of euthanasia.

Margaret Somerville

Reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald Dana McCauley wrote about the testimony by Professor Margaret Somerville, an expert on the Canadian euthanasia law, told the Australian Senate that:

the assurance by early proponents of euthanasia that it would not lead to a "slippery slope" had been proven wrong, with research showing that safeguards were being routinely violated. 

"In one study in Belgium, they surveyed doctors and found that 32 per cent had gone outside of the regulations," she said. 

While originally only available to consenting adults, voluntary assisted dying has in some countries been extended to young children, the mentally ill and even newborn babies. 

In January, a 29-year-old physically healthy Dutch woman with mental illness died after drinking poison supplied by a doctor in a medically assisted death.

The Australian federal Senate is debating a private member’s bill brought by Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm, which would enable the ACT and Northern Territory to make their own laws on voluntary assisted dying.