Bob Day (SA, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate the remaining few words I have in my speech into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The incorporated speech read as follows—

agents of healing and life—by forcing them to participate in premature death, in killing, is a distortion of their vocation. Worse still, forcing them to do so against their conscience is a dangerous path indeed.

The law is a teacher. Returning Australia to assisted suicide will only serve to dull our collective conscience. Australia is not a special case. We are not immune from dehumanising cultural forces.

Far from trivialising the existence of pain and suffering, our institutions and laws need to be united in an affirmation of life. This affirmation is a powerful force for good; preserved by the sacred, immutable truth of human dignity. To conclude with the words of G K Chesterton,

"Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live."