The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 [Victoria] was prepared by Minister for Health Jill Hennessy and Attorney-General Martin Pakula. On 20 September 2017, Jill Hennessy spoke to Jon Faine on ABC Radio Melbourne about the details of the bill which would be presented to Parliament that day....
Today three judges in the UK High Court ruled against Noel Conway's application to enable doctors to help him to end his own life. Noel was too weak to attend the court in person for the hearing or for today's decision, but said "As I approach...
"As a clinician, I firmly believe that people have the right to choose how they live, which includes having choices about how they die...
[caption id="attachment_10756" align="alignright" width="285"] Nia Sims with Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy and the VAD bill.[/caption] Nia Sims, 43, has been living with a severe form of the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma since she was 23. Nia was initially told it was likely she would die within...
Scott Barraco of New York, featured in the following short video to advocate for assisted dying, after his experience with his girlfriend, Cathy Quinn, who died from tongue cancer in June 2014. A physician-assisted dying bill, which would allow terminally ill people to die with dignity, is...
As a nurse of 23 years and paramedic of 19 years, Jenny Moncur said she encounters about half a dozen cases each year where people with a terminal illness take their own lives. "Often it is lonely, painful, done violently and sometimes not very successfully,...
"My grandfather, an OB-GYN, stated his support for the legality of medical aid in dying as he was slowly dying from cancer. I remember a conversation in which he marveled that our society had no problem giving “aid in birth” by providing medication for pain...
On 20 September, the NSW Opposition Leader, Luke Foley, tweeted the following "Personally, I will vote against. I oppose the state sanctioning the taking of human life. Opposed to capital punishment & euthanasia". Apparently, Foley's comment was retweeted by several senior Catholic figures, including the Bishop...
A Victorian Anglican bishop, Bishop Andrew Curnow, has delivered a startling rebuke to those demanding he oppose marriage equality and assisted dying. Bendigo Bishop Curnow argued Australia was no longer a Christian nation and using Christianity as grounds to oppose equal marriage and voluntary assisted...
By Peter Singer, Professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne People often ask me what connects the various issues I have written about over the years – issues like global poverty, the way we treat animals, and the way we...