Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Link to the Dissenting report by Dr Robinson (Link).
Similar to the minority report on assisted dying written for the Western Australian parliament that was by the Hon Nick Goiran, Dr Robinson's report creates a strong basis for opposing assisted dying.
Nick Goiran wrote a 248 page report titled: License to Care not License to Kill opposing the legalization of euthanasia or assisted suicide which was meticulously researched, documenting world-wide concerns with legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Dr Robinson's dissenting report is 24 pages of strong arguements against euthanasia. Robinson first argues that since the World Medical Association and the Australian Medical Association that physicians should not be involved in interventions that have as their primary intention, the ending of a persons life, therefore acts of euthanasia and assisted suicide are unethical.
Dr Robinson then emphasizes that if proper end-of-life care and palliative care were properly available that there would be no demand for euthanasia. Robinson points out that the administration of poison has become an alternative to the lack of proper end-of-life care.
Dr Robinson then quotes Dr Philip Nitschke, also known as Australia's Dr Death, who now believes that death should be an available option for people who are "Tired of Living," Robinson explains that - Once the euthanasia genie is out of the bottle it doesn’t go back in. He states:
The flow on affect from initial legalisation has proven to be unstoppable and irreversible once introduced. What is initially proposed as a measure to help a very small number of people, said to be in intolerable physical pain, is progressively broadened to apply to thousands of people, including those with no physical medical condition. Initial procedural safeguards are also relaxed. Once you lift the lid on Pandora’s box, there’s no going back.
Many vulnerable people experience subtle pressure to take their own life – some are made to feel almost duty bound to their family or to society to end their life prematurely. When elder abuse is combined with legalised access to the administration of life-ending poisons, it inevitably leaves the most vulnerable at risk of being coerced into ending their lives by assistance to suicide or euthanasia. This results in wrongful deaths, whereby people’s lives are taken from them without their full cognisance or consent. Wrongful deaths have followed these laws everywhere they are introduced.
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| Queensland Parliament |
- Finding 1: The Bill would make it legal for one person to take the life or help end the life of another person, or to counsel or help another person to take their life.
- Finding 2: The BiIl would increase the number of suicides in Queensland as opposed to reducing them.
- Finding 3: The Bill fails to ensure that only eligible people will be able to access assisted suicide or euthanasia.
- Finding 4: The Bill fails to ensure that patients are offered all options to manage their illness prior to the commencement of any life-ending procedure.
- Finding 5: The Bill fails to adequately define “suffering” to limit it to intolerable physical pain.
- Finding 6: The Bill provides inadequate protection to those affected by a mental illness.
- Finding 7: The Bill fails to protect the vulnerable from coercion and undue influence.
- Finding 8: The Bill fails to safeguard the vulnerable from a prolonged, complicated or painful death as a result of the administration of a poison prescribed under the Bill’s provisions.
I encourage my readers to read Dr Robinson's dissenting report to the Queensland Parliament. There has been much pressure to extend euthanasia to every jurisdiction in Australia and I hope that cooler heads will prevail, preventing the legalization of euthanasia in Queensland.
Link to the Dissenting report by Dr Robinson MP (Link).
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