Euthanasia legislation to be introduced in WA in 2019
by Xavier Symons | 17 Nov 2018 |
The government of Western Australia plans to introduce euthanasia legislation next year, according to an announcement this week by State Health Minister Roger Cook.
Mr Cook said that the government plans to introduce a bill into parliament in the second half of 2019, and that it has appointed an expert panel to help draft the bill.
Mr Cook said the bill “will provide those individuals who are experiencing grievous and irremediable suffering associated with advanced and progressive terminal conditions with an additional choice.”
In August a parliamentary committee investigating end of life care in the state published a report that recommended the legalisation of euthanasia for competent patients for whom “death is a reasonably foreseeable outcome”. It is unclear whether the government will follow all of the panel’s recommendations in its bill.
The bill is expected to receive broad support in both the lower and upper houses of parliament, though there are several parliamentarians who have said they will campaign against the bill.
Liberal MP Nick Goiran wrote a dissenting opinion for the joint select committee’s final report, labelling euthanasia a “recipe for elder abuse”.
Australian Medical Association WA president Omar Khorshid said proper consultation with the relevant sectors would be crucial in the process. "There's a lot of safety concerns," Dr Khorshid said.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Occasionally we tag one of our articles “reproductive revolution” because it exemplifies how far law and technology take us once sex has been detached from reproduction. This week’s tale comes from India. A team at Galaxy Care Hospital in Pune has performed India’s first successful uterus transplant. A 45-year-old mother donated her womb to her 28-year-old daughter who eventually gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
Arrangements like this are no longer newsworthy, but what made the transplant necessary? It turns out that the young woman had had at least two abortions and these had damaged her uterus. Frankly, I find this fertility-at-any-cost approach a bit bizarre.
But not more bizarre than some of the other stories: the Dutch sperm donor who may have fathered 1000 children, the Japanese man who is raising 13 children by commercial surrogates from Thailand, the 65-year-old German grandmother who gave birth to quads, the German zoophile who is in a “relationship” with his Alsatian because “Animals are much easier to understand than women” and so on.
The reproductive revolution was originally intended to give loving couples the joy of having children of their own. How differently it has turned out. As they say, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children."
Arrangements like this are no longer newsworthy, but what made the transplant necessary? It turns out that the young woman had had at least two abortions and these had damaged her uterus. Frankly, I find this fertility-at-any-cost approach a bit bizarre.
But not more bizarre than some of the other stories: the Dutch sperm donor who may have fathered 1000 children, the Japanese man who is raising 13 children by commercial surrogates from Thailand, the 65-year-old German grandmother who gave birth to quads, the German zoophile who is in a “relationship” with his Alsatian because “Animals are much easier to understand than women” and so on.
The reproductive revolution was originally intended to give loving couples the joy of having children of their own. How differently it has turned out. As they say, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children."
Michael Cook Editor BioEdge |
NEWS THIS WEEK
by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
Indian woman ‘borrows’ her mother’s because hers was scarred after abortions. by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
Becoming a resource-wasting ‘epidemic’ by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
Social isolation can even lead to changes in brain structure by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
Settlement reached after five years of litigation by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
Not part of a slippery slope, says IVF expert by Michael Cook | Nov 17, 2018
A very expensive form of insurance by Xavier Symons | Nov 17, 2018
The bill that would ban terminations after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. by Xavier Symons | Nov 17, 2018
The state government has appointed and expert panel to draft a bill. by Xavier Symons | Nov 17, 2018
A court has charged 18 people with violating surrogacy laws. BioEdge
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