Can voluntary Euthanasia be contained?

1. The patient has to be competent and terminally ill. (alternatively, hopelessly ill)
2. Only the patient can initiate the request for assistance to die.
3. The patient must be informed regarding diagnosis, prognosis and palliative care options.
4. To avoid misdiagnosis, specify the number of doctors to be consulted.
5. Specify the minimum experience of doctors.
6. Specify that doctors cannot be members of the same practice.
7. Specify the number of specialists and palliative care experts to be involved.
8. Specify that a psychiatrist must state that the patient is not suffering treatable clinical depression.
9. Specify the number and duration of cooling off periods.
10. Prohibit VE in public hospitals.
11. Provide the option for private institutions to prohibit VE on their premises.
12. Require interpreters in circumstances where the patient’s first language is not the same as the doctor’s first language. Interpreters are used to ensure absolutely that there is no possibility of misunderstanding by the patient.
13. Specify that the patient’s final request be videotaped. (hardly necessary but it would record the patient’s demeanour at this crucial point, it was not required in the N.T., nor is it in Oregon or Holland)
14. Require complete records to be kept and that the coroner be advised of every VE death with full powers to investigate.
15. Require statistics to be tabled in parliament and establish a standing Parliamentary Committee to monitor how the legislation is working.

If a mix of those safeguards is not enough to convince you that the so called vulnerable members of society would never get caught up in the process against their will, legislation could specify that assistance is only available to those who have completed an Advance Directive or a Living Will and have it registered with a public registrar or trustee. This would absolutely ensure that no citizen who is not so registered would ever have anything to fear from being inadvertently caught up in the process. I do not believe that such a provision is necessary however it would not be difficult or expensive to put in place.

The point I make is this:

The often repeated, but never substantiated statement, that no adequate safeguards can be devised to control voluntary euthanasia, is nonsense. We need more politicians committed to reducing the senseless and needless suffering of a very few, to work together devising the appropriate mix of safeguards, rather than simply accepting that it is a stumbling block that cannot be surmounted. To say this can’t be done is to ignore the unfettered authority Parliament has to devise legislative responses to meet the needs of constituents.