The bill can be found here.
There are a couple of things I find a bit frightening about this bill.
Firstly, it isn't just for people that are terminally ill. It is also for those that suffer from chronic illness. Type one diabetes is a chronic illness. There is no mild diabetes or getting over diabetes. It is chronic always.
There is also a few words used in the bill that are vague.
The first amendment will be part 13 B.
This is what 13 B states:
13B—Criminal liability in relation to end of life arrangements:
(1) It is a defence to a charge of an offence against this Division arising
out of the death or intended death of a person if the death resulted, or
was intended to result, from the administration of drugs to the person by the defendant and the defendant proves, on the balance of
probabilities, that—
- (a) the defendant was, at the time of the conduct to which the charge relates, a treating practitioner of the person; and
- (b) the defendant believed on reasonable grounds that the person was an adult person of sound mind who was suffering from an illness, injury or other medical condition that irreversibly impaired the person's quality of life so that life had become intolerable to that person (the qualifying illness); and
- (c) the conduct to which the charge relates occurred at the express request of the person; and
- (d) the conduct to which the charge relates was, in all the circumstances, a reasonable response to the suffering of the person.
I also wonder how one defines what reasonable is?
I recently heard of a child that was told she couldn't go to her school camp because the school thought her blood sugar levels were not well enough controlled. The mother offered to come to the camp and the school said no to this too because they wanted the children to get away without their parents. The school thought it was perfectly reasonable to not allow this child with type one diabetes to go but the mother didn't.
A school camp is one thing but it could be the next problem a family with a child with type one diabetes has is that a doctor thinks it is reasonable to decide that this child has no quality of life since they don't have good control over their diabetes so give them a lethal injection. That is what this bill allows. It is just frightening to me that my child could have to defend their right to life and defend that their lives are worth living. Every life is worth living. We really cannot decide if anyone has a good quality of life.
So please pray for all those that will be voting for or against this bill. Please write to them also and tell them that we do not want such laws in our state. I will be writing to all our MP's about this law and asking them to vote against it.