HEALTH IS PRIORITY

THE End-of-Life Bill is cowardly, dishonest and dangerous. The risks inherent in weakening the basic right to life by creating a legal mechanism whereby one person can actively participate in ending the life of another have rightly been highlighted by many correspondents.

As a society we value and sanctify life and oppose legal measures to end it prematurely, such as with capital punishment, recognising that even after multiple and lengthy legal reviews mistakes still occur and innocent lives are lost.

It is naive to imagine the law can be weakened without someone eventually finding a way to exploit or abuse it. For these reasons alone the proposed legislation should be rejected but we must also confront the dishonesty and deception inherent in this Bill.

As proposed, the Bill does nothing to improve care for the terminally ill or dying. It does not make any attempt to improve their quality of life or access to palliative care. It simply gives up on people nearing the end of their life.

Our governments should be trying to get basic services right before trying to be socially progressive.

As a state we have grossly inadequate access to public health services, an embarrassing lack of public housing for the economically disadvantaged, large numbers dependent on charity and successive governments failing to even identify children being abused, let alone attempting to protect them. DavidFinkelde

Hobart