0 calificaciones0% encontró este documento útil (0 votos)
28 vistas7 páginas
Labor MP Philip Dalidakis supports Victoria's proposed voluntary assisted dying bill because he believes an individual has the right to make their own medical decisions, even if it conflicts with his religious views as an Orthodox Christian. He said his religious beliefs should not outweigh the wishes of the community he represents, which strongly support the bill. The bill is expected to pass the upper house, but some want additional safeguards added first, and others remain firmly opposed to legalizing assisted dying. Debate on the complex issue continued in the Victorian parliament.
Labor MP Philip Dalidakis supports Victoria's proposed voluntary assisted dying bill because he believes an individual has the right to make their own medical decisions, even if it conflicts with his religious views as an Orthodox Christian. He said his religious beliefs should not outweigh the wishes of the community he represents, which strongly support the bill. The bill is expected to pass the upper house, but some want additional safeguards added first, and others remain firmly opposed to legalizing assisted dying. Debate on the complex issue continued in the Victorian parliament.
Labor MP Philip Dalidakis supports Victoria's proposed voluntary assisted dying bill because he believes an individual has the right to make their own medical decisions, even if it conflicts with his religious views as an Orthodox Christian. He said his religious beliefs should not outweigh the wishes of the community he represents, which strongly support the bill. The bill is expected to pass the upper house, but some want additional safeguards added first, and others remain firmly opposed to legalizing assisted dying. Debate on the complex issue continued in the Victorian parliament.
religion shouldn't come before his electorate Labor’s Philip Dalidakis supports Victorian bill because he believes in an individual’s right to make their own decision
Labor MP Philip Dalidakis has told the Victorian parliament his
religious views should not come before the beliefs of the community he represents, which he said overwhelmingly supported proposed voluntary assisted dying legislation. As the bill entered its second day of debate in the upper house, Dalidakis said he had exchanged emails with a senior Orthodox rabbi who opposed the legislation because it was not consistent with Judaism.
Victoria's voluntary assisted dying bill may need
amendments to pass upper house Read more
“One of the things I said in that email exchange was: ‘Why is it
that my faith should somehow have a greater weighting in the decisions I make as a legislator in comparison to the rights of an individual that may not be of the same faith as myself?’,” Dalidakis told the house. “Why should I let my faith dictate to me what is in the best interest of the community over and above what might benefit the community itself?” Dalidakis said he would vote for the proposed laws because he had listened to his community and because he believed in an individual’s right to make decisions about their life. “If we fundamentally believe that each and every person has a right of self- determination within our society ... if we believe in our democracy ... then we have a fundamental belief that people must be able to make decisions for themselves, as challenging as those decisions may be,” he said. Supporters of the government-sponsored bill believed it was likely to face an easier passage through the upper house given the number of Greens, independents and progressive Liberals in the Legislative Council. But numbers have tightened in the past fortnight and it now appears unlikely the legislation will pass without amendments. MPs have been given a conscience vote on the issue, which was debated in the upper house until 11.30pm on Thursday night before resuming on Friday morning. An indicative vote was expected on Friday afternoon, but the final vote will not take place until parliament next sits in a fortnight. If the bill is amended, the legislation will return to the lower house. Advertisement slippers. reinvented. the world's most comfortable slipper
Liberal MP Simon Ramsay spoke to the bill on Friday,
describing it as his most difficult speech in seven years of parliament. He asked his party to respect him for his position, which is in support of the bill subject to amendments being passed. Ramsay said he had found no evidence from other countries with voluntary assisted dying laws that suggested vulnerable and ill people being abused by family members had been coerced into using the laws, but he nonetheless wanted additional safeguards added. He also called for significant increases in palliative care funding for regional Victoria, saying that it would be tragic if people in areas with limited access to pain relief turned to voluntary assisted dying because of inequalities in healthcare. Everyone should have the option of first accessing quality palliative care, he said. But he said the fact that the legislation was not perfect would not lead to him blocking or opposing it. “We are legislators, not clinicians,” he said. “We do not feel the pain of a terminally ill patient for whom palliative care does not provide relief.” He said stories shared by parliamentarians of witnessing pain and suffering were “nothing” compared with what doctors saw on a daily basis. 'I've done my darndest': advocate Rodney Syme awaits Victorian vote on assisted dying Read more
“Like doctors we must use our power as legislators to provide
the best care,” he said. He had faith in the parliamentary process to incorporate any amendments and scrutinise the legislation for flaws. Independent MP James Purcell declared his support for the bill, provided that it was amended so that the requirement that a patient be 12 months or less away from death was reduced to six months. He said his community, and especially nurses he had spoken to, overwhelmingly supported the legislation. But the Nationals MP Luke O’Sullivan said he could not support the proposed laws, which he said would “fundamentally change the way we operate as a society”. He broke down as he said he would have missed the opportunity to tell his dying father the things he had told him in his final moments, had voluntary assisted dying been available. “Say someone goes through this process and they’ve got this drug at home in the lockbox,” he said. “The family don’t know when the person is going to take it. It’s actually like having a bomb waiting to explode. The rest of the family and friends will wake up every day thinking; ‘Is today going to be the day that they’re going to take it [the lethal drugs]?’ “Would they take it in secrecy because they wouldn’t want to alarm the family? It’s one of those things where I think it might add stress to the family and stress to the patient.”