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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 490 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

to this legislation and in due course, other matters not intervening, will discuss the detail stage if it is passed in principle. There may be details of the Bill that I would like to come back to and talk about if the debate proceeds that far, but at this stage I wish to focus on the in-principle debate.

Mr Speaker, in focusing on the in-principle debate I want to say that I believe that in debating this matter and in voting on this matter we ought not to be governed by any judgment one way or the other of the politics surrounding the Andrews Bill. It has been the contention of a number of members of this parliament that this Assembly is competent to debate and decide on these matters for itself. Consistent with that decision that this Assembly can debate and decide one way or the other on this issue, we ought to do that, debate the issue, and not become caught up in the politicking of the Federal Parliament.

As a member of this place since the last election, I have been involved in a previous debate on a version of this legislation. I and my colleagues were happy to see the debate brought on again today, although the Bill was introduced only last week, because we understood that the three new members of the Assembly, including two members from the Labor side, had had sufficient time, and had indicated that they had had sufficient time, to consider the matter and so to debate the matter in principle today. That is the basis on which we have proceeded with the debate today.

Mr Speaker, I want to talk about this matter under three headings. I want, first, to make some personal reflections about my thoughts on voluntary euthanasia; I want to discuss briefly some of the objections that are raised; and then I want to stand back a little and talk about the role of the law and how that applies to the question we are considering today. The first thing that we have to understand and be very clear about, because not all previous speakers have been clear, is that we are talking about people who are dying. We are not talking about all the other categories of people that have been discussed along the way, such as the disabled or the old; we are talking about people who are dying, people in the terminal phase of a terminal illness.

We are all familiar with stories about the circumstances that some individuals find themselves in when they are in the terminal phase of a terminal illness. They find themselves in significant pain which cannot be alleviated to their satisfaction. They find themselves in situations of significant indignity and significant mental anguish. In their own minds they make a choice; they decide that they have reached a point in the progress of the terminal phase of their terminal illness where they want to bring it to a conclusion. They want to end it. They want to die. Mr Speaker, it is my belief that that is a choice that must be made by the individual concerned. It seems to me that it is perilous for us to seek to put ourselves in another person's position and imagine their pain and their suffering and say, "I would endure it. I would not want it to end". I think it is also dangerous for us to say, "I am not going to try to imagine the circumstances of others and I am not going to try to consider what my response would be". Mr Speaker, I believe very strongly that this is a choice that individuals have to confront. I understand that this is a difficult problem and many of the speakers today have noted the difficulties that are created by this choice. It is my view that, in confronting these kinds of moral dilemmas, in contemplating these difficult decisions, we achieve the higher levels to which human beings are able to ascend. In avoiding moral dilemmas and ducking difficult decisions, I believe that we debase ourselves as humans.

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