fear of death , page-76

"I am in favour of voluntary euthanasia but I feel that there needs to be strict controls around it.

I find this position a bit against what I would normally say, but I feel that the vulnerable approaching death need to be protected from potentially unscrupulous interested parties wanting them of the way.

We need to be pretty certain that we are adhering to people's real wishes - after all the decision is pretty well final."

Whereu, I'm sure no one would disagree that careful controls would have to apply.
Do you remember the brief Northern Territory legislation?
That required, I think, the opinions of three doctors, one a psychiatrist, to agree that the patient genuinely wished for and met the conditions for voluntary euthanasia.

It seemed to work well for the limited time it applied in the Northern Territory, given the Federal government's intervention to cancel the legislation. I remember Kevin Andrews, who is still a member of this current government, being instrumental in this.

So, I think similar medical opinions applying in the event of federal legislation ever being passed would be about as good as any safeguards could get.

What do you think?

There is much talk of 'the slippery slope' and 'such legislation could be abused', but I've not really heard anyone provide any detail of how they think this abuse would occur if the appropriate safeguards, as above, were in place.