Blogs with keyword: Australia

Posted on Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 10:22pm

Inga Peulich's minority report to the Victorian Parliament LSI Committee's end-of-life choices report reveals an incoherent and entenched hostility toward assisted dying. I challenge Mrs Peulich to furnish verifiable evidence to support her claims.

Mrs Inga Peulich is MLC for the Victorian state region of South-Eastern Metropolitan and is Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs and for Scrutiny of Government. She is a member of the Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee, which recently recommended assisted dying law reform.

Mrs Inga Peulich is MLC for the Victorian state region of South-Eastern Metropolitan and is Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs and for Scrutiny of Government. She is a member of the Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee, which recently recommended assisted dying law reform.

Keywords: Australia | Victoria | Rhetoric | Rhetoric: Slippery slope

 

Read more...

Posted on Sunday 24th April 2016 at 8:02am

Legal academic Dr Andrew McGee advances arguments against assisted dying legalisation that fail to pass coherence basics

Dr Andrew McGee, Senior Lecturer in law at Queensland University of Technology, published an opinion piece, "Why Bob Hawke is wrong about euthanasia," opposing assisted dying law reform in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 19th April. He invokes straw-man arguments and conflates different issues. 

His ‘they might choose to die too early’ argument overlooks both the current tragedy of the terminally ill suiciding by violent means, as well as that in currently lawful jurisdictions like Oregon and Washington, a third of people who qualify for their medication never take it: it provides strong psychological relief that there is another option available whether they take it or not.


Keywords: Flapdoodle | Euthanasia | Australia | Legislative reform

 

Read more...

Posted on Tuesday 19th April 2016 at 2:00am

Lyle Shelton tweets misinformation on ABC Q&A. Is this an omen for his upcoming appearance on the program next week?

The Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Mr Lyle Shelton, is at it again.

Yesterday, he tweeted ABC's Q&A program as thousands of people do while it is on air. His tweet was broadcast live to air as shown above. What did he say as panelists were discussing assisted dying law reform?

"Sadly voluntary euthanasia quickly became involuntary euthanasia in Holland. #qanda" LyleShelton

Mr Shelton's claim is bunkum.

Keywords: Fearmonger | Fiction | Faith | Assisted dying (AD) | Involuntary euthanasia (IVE) | Non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Australia | Netherlands | Religion | Christian | Lobbying: Opponents | Rhetoric: Killing | Rhetoric: Slippery slope

 

Read more...

Posted on Tuesday 8th March 2016 at 7:53pm

Australia's Medical Registration Board has told Dr Rodney Syme he is a serious danger to patients.

Australia's Medical Registration Board (AHPRA) has told Dr Rodney Syme that he is a serious danger to patients.

Dr Rodney Syme, who occasionally provides advice and medication for dying patients to give them control over their dying process, has been reprimanded by Australia's Medical Registration Board (AHPRA) for posing a 'serious danger' to such patients. The story has been reported widely in the media.


Keywords: Assisted dying (AD) | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Australia | AHPRA

 

Read more...

Posted on Wednesday 25th November 2015 at 8:00pm

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne appeared before the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life decision making last week. A key 'fact' they told the Committee was absolutely false.

On Wednesday 19th November 2015, the Catholic Church appeared before the Victorian Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee. Monsignor Anthony Ireland, the Episcopal Vicar for Health, Aged and Disability Care, and Father Anthony Kerin, Episcopal Vicar for Life, Marriage and Family gave evidence about end-of-life decision making. They made a factually wrong allegation about Oregon during their testimony.

Anthony Ireland spoke first, making it clear that they were appearing before the Committee with delegated authority from the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne (Denis Hart) and with the endorsement of the Victorian Catholic Bishops. He emphasised that "the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne does not come to this Committee with fanciful or frivolous arguments."

Keywords: Fiction | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Australia | Victoria | Oregon | Catholic Church | Catholic | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'

 

Read more...

Posted on Sunday 15th November 2015 at 2:38am

Catholic scholar Bernadette Tobin rails against assisted dying arguments advanced in the ABC's Q&A program this week. I explain why her arguments fail.

In a recent opinion piece in the ABC’s Religion and Ethics section, Bernadette Tobin1 rails against assisted dying, commencing with the criticism that the ABC’s Q&A discussion on the subject this week “lacked precision.” But Tobin’s opinion piece itself commits exactly this offence, as I explain.

For the sake of brevity I’ll only quickly mention that Tobin’s piece also fails on the score of accuracy. For example, she wrongly asserts that “euthanasia” means a doctor administering lethal medication to a patient. It doesn’t. “Euthanasia” simply means “good death”: nothing more and nothing less, regardless of how it occurs. Tobin also asserts that voluntary euthanasia in lawful jurisdictions has caused non-voluntary euthanasia to develop.

Keywords: Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Australia | Bernadette Tobin | Catholic | Analysis | Lobbying: Opponents | Rhetoric: Killing | Rhetoric: Slippery slope

 

Read more...

Posted on Thursday 17th September 2015 at 6:06am

Victorian Parliament Committee finds Australian Christian Lobby's evidence this week "quite surprising" and "quite contrary" to evidence already received.

On 16th September 2015, the Victorian Director of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), Dan Flynn, appeared as a witness to the Victorian Parliament’s end of life choices inquiry being conducted by the Legal and Social Issues Committee. He made a number of mistaken statements, but what was most worrisome was the revelation of the ACL’s real agenda: to wind back patient rights more than a quarter century.

Keywords: Fearmonger | Flip-flop | Fudge | Fiction | Faith | Assisted dying (AD) | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Refusal of medical treatment (ROMT) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Voluntary refusal of food and fluids (VRFF) | Withholding/withdrawal of medical treatment (WOMT) | Australia | Victoria | Belgium | Netherlands | Australian Medical Association (AMA) | Christian | Legislative reform | Lobbying: Opponents | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: Suicide

 

Read more...

Posted on Sunday 23rd August 2015 at 10:00pm

Northern Territory Health Minister John Elferink sparks a furore over ill-informed and insensitive remarks about dying Northern Territorians.

ABC journalists Jesse Dorsett and Eleni Roussos recently reported remarks made by the Northern Territory (Australia) Health Minister John Elferink, about the cost of supporting dying patients in the last year of life. Elferink said that dying patients could be personally persuaded to forgo medical treatment specifically in order to have more money available for their grandkids' 'opportunities'. Why is he wrong and what should he do about it?

Keywords: Refusal of medical treatment (ROMT) | Withholding/withdrawal of medical treatment (WOMT) | Australia | Northern Territory | Analysis

 

Read more...

Posted on Sunday 14th June 2015 at 4:28pm

Sydney psychologist Mary Ticinovic advances specious arguments against rational assisted dying choice.

In today’s Fairfax press, Sydney woman Mary Ticinovic advances a number of reasons as to why she believes that assisted dying is not merciful. The by-line identifies her as a “clinical psychologist”. But her arguments are not founded on the basic tenets of psychology. How so?

Read Mary’s opinion piece in The Age


All life is precious


Keywords: Flapdoodle | Faith | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Assisted dying (AD) | Australia | Christian | Catholic | Lobbying: Opponents | Rhetoric: Hippocratic oath

 

Read more...

Pages