The Australian Capital Territory’s Legislative Assembly is calling for submissions to a Select Committee on End of Life Choices, which will review and report on end of life choices in the ACT on or before the 29 November 2018.
The Chair of the Committee, Bec Cody MLA said “The Committee will be examining all issues around end of life care, including palliative care, the practices of physicians assisting at this stage, practices in other jurisdictions and the current framework of legislation.”
ACT now to support the ACT and all Australians. This is an important action that you can take, regardless of whether you live in the ACT, or not.
Submissions close on Friday, 23 March, 2018 so please ACT NOW and email your submission to [email protected].
If you cannot use email post your submission to Secretary, Select Committee on End of Life Choices in the ACT, Legislative Assembly for the ACT, GPO Box 1020, CANBERRA ACT 2601.
Click for more details of the Inquiry and their invitation for public submissions
The ACT Parliament does not have the legislative ability to decriminalisation assisted dying in the ACT, but if this Inquiry reported in favour of introducing a voluntary assisted dying scheme, it would be very compelling for our Federal Government to restore territory rights to make laws regarding this end-of-life heath issue.
Our experience with this Inquiry and similar Inquiries in New Zealand and other states of Australia is that those opposed to assisted dying use their extensive communication networks to encourage a lot of people to make negative submissions. Please help to counteract the minority who oppose this change by sharing your personal story of suffering, or explain why end-of-life choice is so important to you.
Victoria has just passed a voluntary assisted dying law, but please do not assume that this choice to relieve end-of-life suffering will soon be available to all Australians just because it is supported by the vast majority of us. Politicians need a strong mandate to change the law. They need to hear from you.