Queensland Law Reform Commission told euthanasia and assisted suicide laws cannot be made safe

In its submission to the Queensland Law Reform Commission into "A legal framework for voluntary assisted dying" the Australian care Alliance has pointed to the evidence from the fatally flawed schemes in eighteen jurisdictions that have or have had legalised euthanasia and/or assisted suicide.

The submission presents detailed evidence about the twelve categories of wrongful death that cannot be prevented if euthanasia and assisted suicide are legalised.

The Executive Summary of the submission states:

Any proposal to change the law on murder and counselling and aiding suicide to exempt doctors who prescribe and/or administer lethal poison to a specified category of persons requires the most careful scrutiny.

It challenges the Commission to ask:

How will such a scheme avoid wrongful deaths? How will such a scheme guarantee a humane, rapid and peaceful death?

And concludes:

It is the considered position of the Australian Care Alliance, based on a review of all the available evidence, that none of the jurisdictions that have legalised euthanasia and/or assisted suicide have succeeded in establishing a genuinely safe framework for assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Based on this evidence we urge the Commission to be honest and transparent in its proposals either explaining exactly how its proposals will guarantee that there will not be a single wrongful or inhumane death in Queensland or openly admitting that it cannot guarantee this and that there will inevitably and unavoidably be wrongful and inhumane deaths under its proposed scheme.

The Commission is due to report by 1 March 2021.

Submissions on its Consultation Paper close on 27 November 2020.