'Losers and Losers' in Victorian Committee recommendations

Naysayers will observe that both actions come under the general term 'assisted dying', but most people who made submissions were honest enough to use the correct terminology and most talked about euthanasia. This is understandable given that the discussion in Australia, since ever the issue has been in the public square, has focussed on euthanasia and not assisted suicide.

That in itself is somewhat of an anomaly, given that both in the UK and the USA, assisted suicide has dominated the debate and not euthanasia. Regardless, it smacks somewhat of paternalism that the committee should resolve that they know best how people who want to be made dead should be made so. Or perhaps it is simply about taking the legislative line of least resistance.

Whether or not the committee's recommendations are adopted by the Victorian Government and, if so, what the final form of the bill will be, remains to be seen. We can be certain, however, that Anny Shaw and others who were hoping for something more will be disappointed. Shaw is perhaps naïve to have expected anything more. 'Tired of life' euthanasia, even though it was first mooted in Holland more than 20 years ago, is only now commanding public and possibly legislative attention. It takes time for any society to become normalised to patient killing and assisted suicide to the point where hitherto taboo extensions become feasible and reasonable.

The committee seems to be commenting to dispel the incremental nature of such laws when it asserts that:

The framework should not establish an unencumbered right to assisted dying. Rather, it should make the practice legal if all criteria are met.

There should be no presumption of access to assisted dying. Access will be determined by the careful assessment of a robust set of criteria by those best placed to do so: the person themselves, a primary doctor, and an independent secondary doctor.

Saying so doesn't make it so. Even though euthanasia in Holland remains a criminal act except in prescribed circumstances, as Professor Theo Boer recently observed, it is now considered as a 'patient's right' even though the law sees it differently:

For a considerable number of people, euthanasia has become part of their lifestyle; it has to do with controlling your destiny. In the beginning euthanasia was seen as a last resort in a situation of extreme physical suffering. Now, increasingly, euthanasia is considered to be a patient's right and is considered by some even to be a fashionable death.

Even here we are not talking about an 'unencumbered right' as the committee puts it. Everyone knows that access is subject to some sort of process, even in the Low Countries. This is a fudge by the committee who can do nothing to stop the development of the public perception that people will indeed believe they have a right of access to being made dead.

That is where the likes of Shaw and others whose wishes do not form part of the proposal will draw some hope. The qualification boundaries are not only porous in nature, they are also likely to be tested at some point when public acceptance has grown and where a new campaign emerges questioning why identified others who are also suffering are not included.

That inevitable engagement will be very similar in structure to the current debate; parading difficult cases before the media and arguing for a compassionate response. The only difference will be that amendment to the current law will be a far easier exercise than it will be to create the first beachhead.

That there will most likely always be people who are excluded makes an ass out of any law that supposes itself to be based on compassion for people who are suffering.