As the people of God are called to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8) I encourage you to invest five minutes and make a few mouse clicks that will help you easily send a message of concern to your Senators, ahead of the looming debate on euthanasia.

Please take a moment to speak up. We’ve made it very easy for you to respond. But first, here’s the background:

Debate in the Senate is expected on 14 August that would effectively restore euthanasia in the Northern Territory. That would bring untold harm especially to people who cannot speak for themselves.

The application of euthanasia to newborn babies and to elderly or infirm people overseas makes very clear how euthanasia law changes the culture and causes society to set aside any so-called safeguards:

In the Netherlands in 2005, several senior doctors admitted killing newborn babies who were deemed unworthy of life (‘The Advertiser’ 8/3/2005 p27). Clearly those patients provided no consent. Instead, medical people, whose social values were re-shaped by euthanasia law took matters into their own hands.

In 1999 a doctor in the Netherlands was charged with illegally assisting the suicide of a patient who was not terminally sick (nor sick at all). The patient was very healthy, but was “tired of living” and asked for (and received) a lethal injection. The doctor was prosecuted by the authorities but was eventually acquitted (‘The Advertiser’ 16/12/2000 p66).

You may remember a report in ‘The Lancet’ (3/10/1998) on “seven deaths in Darwin” that investigated euthanasia in the Northern Territory. It found that none of the seven people who had expressed interest in euthanasia had intolerable pain. The report said “Fatigue, frailty, depression, and other symptoms contributed more to the suffering of patients.”

The Northern Territory has plenty of fatigued, frail and depressed people who greatly need encouragement and support, but not euthanasia.

As the Northern Territory exists by a decision of the Commonwealth, our Federal MPs must exercise a supervisory responsibility over that part of the nation. And as the Northern Territory has only one House of Parliament, the due diligence and safeguard provided by federal oversight is all the more important.

Hence in 1997, the federal Parliament took action to nullify the Northern Territory euthanasia law.
But in August of 2018 the Senate will debate whether to rescind that action.

Since euthanasia law in the Northern Territory has led to vulnerable and depressed people seeking to end their lives, the Federal Parliament must not allow a restoration of that law.