Thursday 12 June 2008

An open letter to all Victorian Parliamentarians regarding the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008

We (the undersigned) appeal to honourable members of the Victorian Parliament to reject the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008. The Bill permits doctors to prescribe a drug not for the care of the patient or the treatment of illness, but to intentionally end the life of the patient. The Bill has a very wide scope; it affects not only those who are dying, but also those who have an advanced chronic illness.

The Bill would not benefit Victorians who suffer from chronic illnesses. Instead it would make protection of their lives dependant on the strength of their will to continue. The fear of being a burden is a major risk to the survival of those who are chronically ill. If euthanasia, in the form of prescribing a lethal drug to a patient to end their lives, was lawful, that sense of burden would be greatly increased for there would be a moral pressure to relinquish one’s hold on life.

Proponents 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. Making available the option of a fatal prescription would undermine that ideal and create pressure which all seriously ill persons and their families would need to consider, even if they would not otherwise have done so.

It should be noted the Australian Medical Association, the British Medical Association, the New Zealand Medical Association, Canadian Medical Association and the World Medical Association have all opposed similar legislation. It is also opposed by aged care organisations because it is contrary to their ethos of care.

When the Netherlands introduced similar legislation - to relax legal protection with respect to an act deliberately intended to put an end to human life and to create a number of conditions under which a physician is not punishable for assisting termination of a patient’s life - the UN Human Rights Committee commented that:

a)    Such a system may fail to detect and prevent situations where undue pressure could lead to these criteria being circumvented
b)    With the passage of time, such a practice may lead to routinization and insensitivity to the strict application of the requirements in a way not anticipated.

We agree with that judgment. Both on intrinsic moral terms, and in terms of its further harmful effects, we call for the rejection of this Bill.

Rt Rev. Graham Bradbeer
Moderator, Presbyterian Church of Victoria

Rev. Ross Carter
Uniting Church in Australia

Rev. Dr Max Champion
National Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the Uniting Church in Australia

Pastor Mark Conner
Senior Minister of CityLife Church

Dr Denise Cooper-Clarke
Adjunct Lecturer, Ridley Melbourne Mission and Ministry College

Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen
Director Institute for Judaism and Civilization

Rev. Megan Curlis-Gibson
St Hilary’s Anglican Church,  Kew

Archbishop Dr Philip Freier
Anglican Church of Melbourne

Imam Riad Galil
West Heidelburg Mosque
Member of the Victorian Board of Imams

Rev. Father James Grant SSC
Chaplains Without Borders,
Melbourne Anglican Diocese

Assoc. Professor Afif Hadj MB BS (Melb) FRACS
Director of Surgery, Director of Medical Training, Maroondah Hospital (A Monash University Teaching Hospital)

Archbishop Denis Hart
Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

Rev. Fr Geoff Harvey
Priest of the Good Shepherd Antiochian Orthodox Mission Parish, based at Monash University

Assoc. Professor Rosalie Hudson
Aged Care & Palliative Care consultant/educator

Peter McHugh
Senior Pastor Christian City Church, Whitehorse

 
The Rev. Fr Graeme A. Michell, FSSM
Parish Priest
Anglican Catholic Parish of St Mary the Virgin, Melbourne

Pastor Graham Nelson
Senior Pastor, Life Ministry Centre

Rev. David Palmer
Convenor Church and Nation Committee, Presbyterian Church of Victoria

Rev. Greg Pietsch
President, Victorian District, Lutheran Church of Australia

Marlene Pietsch
Lutheran Church of Australia

Very Rev. Dr Michael Protopopov
Dean - Russian Orthodox Church in Australia

Marcia Riordan
Respect Life Office, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

Metropolitan Archbishop Paul Saliba
Primate of Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand & the Philippines

Bishop Peter Stasiuk CSSR DD
Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne, for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia and New Zealand

Dale Stephenson
Senior Pastor Crossway Baptist Church

Pastor Peter Stevens
Victorian State Officer
Festival of Light Australia

Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini
Associate Dean, JPII Institute for Marriage and Family Melbourne

Rob Ward
Victorian State Director Australian Christian Lobby

Jim Zubic
President of Orthodox Chaplaincy Association