Praise for community consultation on voluntary assisted dying legislation

The Premier, Lara Giddings, and Nick McKim, Leader of the Greens, have been praised for their commitment to voluntary assisted dying law reform and for consulting with the Tasmanian community about their proposed legislation.

Dying with Dignity Tasmania President, Margaret Sing, also commended them on the consultation paper which has been launched and which will make a very valuable contribution to a well-informed, rational debate on the issue of voluntary assisted dying law reform. “As for all legislation, parliamentarians need to base their decisions on sound evidence and carefully reasoned arguments, as well as on community views,”Ms Sing said. “We know how strongly people feel on this issue on both sides of the debate. Those views need to be heard but feelings and convictions alone are not a good basis for important decisions on law reform. Nor can good decisions be made on the basis of ill-informed speculation and unfounded fears.”

Ms Sing said that it was now very clear from extensive evidence that the public and parliamentarians can be confident that voluntary assisted dying legislation is needed,that it is safe and, in fact, safer and more responsible than allowing very unsatisfactory aspects of the current situation to continue.

“When the legislation comes up for debate in Tasmania later this year, it will be the first time that parliamentarians will have such a high level of assurance that assisted dying legislation is not a threat to vulnerable people in our community and that risks can be overcome with careful safeguards,” she said. “They can be confident that it is responsible to vote for the legislation, and also to act with compassion, ensure the law keeps up withcommunity changes and act in a way which is consistent with the views of the vast majority of the community.”

She said that there was evidence that people are dying with prolonged suffering that cannot be relieved adequately.“This is terrible for them and everyone close to them and the effects can last years,” she said. There is also evidence that assisted dying is occurring but without the safeguards and scrutiny that legislation provides.

“There has now been intense scrutiny of experience of legislation elsewhere for many years and that has resulted in overwhelming evidence that doctors are implementing the legislation carefully and responsibly. There is every reason to assume that Tasmanian doctors will behave as responsibly and compassionately,” she said. In 1998 at the time of the first major report by a Tasmanian Parliamentary Committee on the issue of voluntary euthanasia (now called assisted dying), there was almost no information on the impact of assisted dying legislation. “A law had only just been passed in Oregon in the US in 1997, and the Netherlands and Belgium didn’t have legislation until 2002,” Ms Sing said.

Even since the last debate in the Tasmanian parliament in 2009 on the Dying with Dignity Bill, there has been an enormous growth of information from respected and reliable reviews that consistently supported assisted dying legislation after thorough examination of evidence and arguments for and against.

“Too much of the argument against assisted dying legislation is based on out of date, poor quality and incomplete,piecemeal information that cannot be relied on for a responsible debate on our law. There’s no excuse for ill-informed speculation that ignores reputable evidence to the contrary from years of experience with assisted dying legislation,” she said.

“We respect the right of everyone to their beliefs and values and to express their views on this important issue,” Ms Sing said. “But with the right to express our views, there’s a responsibility to check claims so we don’t mislead parliamentarians.” She also said that there was a particular responsibility for community leaders and those in positions of trust in our community who have the resources to check informationto ensure it is dependable.

Dying with Dignity Tasmania will be holding publicly advertised information sessions on the proposed legislation in all regions during the consultation process. Ms Sing invited people who want to express their support for voluntary assisted dying legislation to attend the sessions or to contact Dying with Dignity Tasmania for information and assistance to do so.

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