Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill
Key Concerns

1. This Bill permits doctors to prescribe a drug to intentionally end the life of a human being. The scope of the Bill is alarming. It affects not only those who are dying, but also those who have an advanced incurable illness. 
2. The protection of the lives of those with chronic illness will therefore be dependant on the strength of their will to continue. No person should feel that their illness, at any stage, is a burden to their family, friends, carers or even the health system itself.
3. If prescribing lethal drugs to a patient to end their life were lawful, that sense of burden would be greatly increased because many people would feel pressure to relinquish their hold on life, and stop being a burden to others. 
4. Supporters of the Bill have made claims about existential pain. Pain of an existential nature arises usually from loneliness and a lack of sense of self worth. Serious illness and dying are times when a person needs the support of others. By making available the option of a fatal prescription, the legislation, if passed, would undermine that ideal and create pressure on seriously ill persons and their families to consider this even if they would not otherwise have done so.
5. The Australian Medical Association, the British Medical Association, the New Zealand Medical Association and the World Medical Association have all opposed similar legislation. 
6. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has expressed concern on similar legislation in the Netherlands, stating that the system may fail to detect and prevent situations where undue pressure could lead to the conditions, under which a physician is not punishable for assisting termination of a patient’s life, being circumvented. It also judged that with the passage of time, the strict requirements may be applied routinely and insensitively in a way not anticipated.