Legalised voluntary euthanasia - taking the power of life and death away from doctors

At the same time, the laws prohibiting "assisted suicide" exist for good reason. They are meant to protect vulnerable people from becoming victims of anyone acting with malicious intent.

What we need is provision, for those in real need, of a remedy to the present situation. The days of tacitly agreeing to medical professionals necessarily being all-powerful because of superior knowledge are gone, thank goodness. We live in a literate society with masses of information available to us to enable non-professionals to give - or deny - informed consent on this issue. We should at least have the power - equal to that of any doctor - to decide whether we are going to die other than from natural causes.

It is noteworthy that today’s anti-euthanasia advocates make no mention of the rigorous conditions that the Northern Territory law provided. I have yet to hear from them a single argument that was not adequately covered by that law.

At best we hear general references to other countries’ laws, the details of which precious few Australians would have any idea and certainly not enough to form an informed opinion.

Do I hear someone replying "trust the experts"? The medical profession, judges, politicians?

Not on your life!