Senate debates

Monday, 26 March 2007

Euthanasia

4:02 pm

Photo of Lyn AllisonLyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, before I move general business motion No. 753, standing in my name for today and relating to euthanasia, I seek leave to table a book of messages to politicians about end-of-life choices presented to me and others earlier today.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate—
(a)
recognises that 27 March 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the enactment of the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, which overturned the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995;
(b)
notes the results of a 2007 Newspoll, which found that 80 per cent of Australians thought that doctors should be allowed to provide a lethal dose to a patient experiencing unrelievable suffering and with no hope of recovery; and
(c)
calls on the Government to engage in a debate on end of life care, which includes the option of terminally ill and severely suffering people having choice about the timing and method of their death.

Question negatived.

Photo of Bob BrownBob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | | Hansard source

by leave—Mr Deputy President, I ask you to note that the Greens supported both of the Democrat motions.