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Assisted Dying and Rights Progression

8/8/2017

 
Vol 12, Issue 3

NATHAN GRECH

​Late last month, the Victorian Premier accepted recommendations made by an independent investigation into proposed legislation legalising assisted dying. If passed, Victoria will be the first state to give severely medically unwell people a choice to determine when and how the end of their life plays out. The move is bold, but necessary, and supports the numerous claims we make as Australians about one social concept yet to be realised – progressive civil rights and pro-choice.
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Australia has a long history declaring that we uphold all sorts of inclusive social mores and values. We have somewhat of a personal brand founded upon telling the rest of the world we uphold democracy, free speech and practise the following mantras:

Welcoming people from all walks of life. Encouraging diversity. Migration without much obstacle. Opening borders, albeit in waves, and encouraging ‘multiculturalism’.

Idyllic? Yes. Achievable? Not yet.

Because Australia has many historical and contemporary exceptions to this branding that render some of the aforementioned wants and needs unobtainable. Lack of marriage equality. Systemic maltreatment of indigenous peoples and communities. Class divide, just to name a few.

Now, however, Victorians are on the brink of the first steps of change thanks to assisted dying. And the timing could not be better. This is one topic that thankfully hasn't been done-to-death by the media. Nor is it a buzzword or flavour of the moment that people throw around in social discourse or in essays to try and snag a decent mark. The proposal is fresh and speaks to all members of society, because death (from one cause or another) is the one certainty that we all share in common.

Assisted dying, thus, upholds the right for someone to have a dignified end to life. That’s as fundamental as the right to life itself. It observes the right for someone to not have to suffer through months of years of physical and psychological pain when illness overruns the body and mind. It's a right that, arguably, is fundamental to having autonomy over your own course and quality of life, and that is why it needs to be passed.

If you’ve ever visited someone in hospital who is terminally ill, you’ll know watching them deteriorate when there is nothing you can do is debilitating. And we’re not just talking about people of advanced age either. Childhood cancers are a very real thing. Toddlers with brain tumours, primary school children with terminal blood conditions. Your child. Your younger sibling. Death by terminal illness isn’t ageist. If there’s nothing natural therapies or medical science can do to help, just how humane would it be to let these people suffer until the bitter end?

That is why this move is welcomed, seeing government acting on independent advice with haste, rather than stalling to gauge election vibes. If Victoria passes this legislation, it will have set a standard for being as progressive as popular discourse claims we are.

Indirectly, this legislation could pave the way for change in other contemporary social issues too. Because like it or not, the people of Australia are not solely operating on Catholicism and traditionally conservative values anymore. We live in a social climate where people demand autonomy over their lives, without political or religious pressure on how theirs’ start, continue, or end.

Victoria’s attempt to broaden social rights, whilst accounting for any ethical and malpractice issues that may arise, is laudable. Hopefully, assisted dying become a federal legislatively protected right for those who are ill and deserve it most – our loved ones.

​Nathan Grech is a first-year JD student

More by this writer:
  • Pardon or Prosecute
  • Youth Crime: The Children of the Future
  • Knowledge as Empowerment 

The rest of this issue
  • Accessibility at MLS​
  • Equity Uncle: Textbook Prices
  • Whispers
  • Paths of Glory 
  • I'mma Let You Finish

Youth in Asia
7/8/2017 11:07:45 pm

I'm not necessarily against euthanasia, but the potential for it to be abused or become the first step on the slippery slope must be recognised and extremely strong and extremely difficult to alter protections must be built in.

It is not hard to imagine situations where the elderly are pressured in to discontinuing treatment or even having it withheld outright by hospitals if given that discretion, because trying to prolong their life will be thought of as an inneficient use of resources. It is not hard to imagine that patients, of any age, faced with slim odds of recovery for some illness, are convinced that it is better to just end their life rather than fight for the possibility of survival. Also euthanasia for depression has already occurred in the Netherlands and Belgium, which is a choice (to take ones own life) that we should absolutely not afford to people.

Ultimately, it should be limited strictly to the elderly at the end of their life who have absolutely zero prospect of recovery and who experience a certain threshold of physical pain.

Ugh
8/8/2017 08:49:19 pm

Another article that lacks substance! Please write a book

Why?
8/8/2017 09:21:17 pm

Dear "Ugh", Why would you write this? Is your comment brimming with substance? Have you put the time into your comment that this writer has in constructing, researching and editing their article? What is the motivation for doing this?

Please note, I'm not against disagreement, or even a good bit of petty trolling for the bants. But at least, you know, try and say something funny or insightful if you're going to mindlessly bash articles. You bring nothing of value.

NPJ
8/8/2017 10:52:07 pm

Hey guys, NPJ here,

I actually found this writing was measured and presented the facts in a read letter format along the canon so future students may lool back and see what opinions were once in the air.

I am a big fan of bioethicist Bill Peace who argues that a lot of euthanasia legislation and thought is actually pretty ableist and am thus low key against it, I'm happy articles of such prose and factual content can grace our school each week (did you see that one about a movie review, lol).

Keep up the good work,

Npj

Dr Death
8/8/2017 09:19:23 pm

Legislating for suicide is not social progress.

Not quite just a personal choice?
9/8/2017 11:53:12 am

It's called assisted dying, so not only are you making the choice that you want to end your own life. You're also forcing someone else to help you do it. Why should a Dr, who has taken an oath to save lives, now have to help you end yours.

Tony Jones
9/8/2017 09:35:44 pm

Euthanasia means a good or happy death from the Greek. Perhaps its advocates think they are really advocating for choosing to die with honour or dignity. One might think of the battlefields of WWI/II or other such things as places where a "good death" might have been had, but a bed in a sterile room with death syrup being clinically administered? That's not a happy death, it's profoundly sick.

Legislating pro death serves no clear strategic goal or policy agenda. It normalises suicide. It makes it easier for those with mental illness who might be otherwise helped to kill themselves. It is anti-life and anti-human. Only a deeply depressed or lost society could come up with such an idea.


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