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Latest News Latest News Do no harm: death is not a cure all

Do no harm: death is not a cure all

Friday 12 September 2008 Bishop Christopher Prowse, Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, today welcomed the news that Victoria’s State Parliament voted down the euthanasia bill. Upper House MPs voted 25 to 13 against the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill. The Bill, if passed, would have allowed doctors to legally prescribe or provide a drug so patients could take their own lives. "I think the Parliament is to be praised for this result," Bishop Prowse said. "It is a recognition that our laws must always defend the dignity of each and every person and especially ensure the protection of the weak. "Many in our community were concerned that the proposed Bill put at risk the care and wellbeing of our most vulnerable and dependent patients, who already carry with them a deep concern for the burden they place on others. "I know the medical profession particularly considered the legislation would have corrupted the fundamental ethos of medicine to care for and to heal the sick." Reflecting on the Abortion Law Reform Bill currently in Parliament, Bishop Prowse urged members of the Legislative Council to think about the profound dignity of the pregnant woman and her unborn child. "My hope is that members of the Legislative Council will again make a decision for life," he said. "By rejecting the proposal that assisted suicide is a legitimate way of resolving the burdens of serious and terminal illness, Parliament rejected death as a cure for our ills. "I hope and trust that our Parliament will also determine that the deliberate destruction of an unborn child is a crime no human law can claim to legitimise. "Justice calls us to do all in our power to assist mothers with unwanted pregnancies. It is a shocking and cowardly assault on the dignity of both the pregnant woman and the unborn child to propose that the death of one of them is a legitimate cure to an unwanted pregnancy."