Last weekend a significant motion was passed at the Liberal Party Federal Council.
One which may protect the vulnerable in Victoria and be a significant roadblock to the assisted suicide scheme in Victoria if Premier Andrews loses the upcoming election.
Currently the Andrews Government has legislated the state sanctioned suicide scheme (and euthanasia) to start in June 2019 but the lethal cocktail to be used to kill the patient is yet to be determined.
The motion at the Liberal Party council, moved by Joanne O’ Kane, passed almost unanimously and is clear evidence that many Australians do not support assisted suicide in Australia and do not want to see regulated drugs being diverted from their legitimate use to a killing regime.
It has always been a weakness of the Victorian legislation that the Andrews government could not specify which drug it would use to administer lethal doses pursuant to government issued assisted suicide certificates.
We are only 12 months from the start of this suicide scheme starting and there is yet to be any public reporting on the efficacy of the drug to be approved by the government.
The Andrews Government should be focussing on the lack of sufficient care for the elderly and vulnerable in Victorian care facilities, not starting a live trial on killing people.
Some 40 per cent of the 60,000 elderly people in aged care facilities do not get a visit in a year. The real issue that needs to be addressed both in Victoria and other states is providing adequate care and palliative care when required.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act is sounding more and more like an experiment. My hope is that before the Victorian government authorises any killing of vulnerable patients in June 2019, the experiment will be stopped.
What is encouraging is that Liberal Party Federal Council has made a stand by moving to ban registered Therapeutic Goods Administration drugs being used in Victoria’s assisted suicide program.
This is a step forward and we need to keep taking one step at a time until this terrible legislation and drug experiment is repealed.
