Queenslanders are with you, MP Harper

I WOULD like to add my voice to the growing list of people praising Member for Thuringowa Aaron Harper for his remarkable personal effort in the push for compassionate voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation to be passed in our state parliament.

In doing so, he is representing the wishes of not only the majority of his own electorate but also the majority of Queenslanders statewide, with polls consistently showing four out of five people in our community being in favour of laws to allow rational terminally ill people with irremediable suffering to voluntarily choose the timing and circumstances of their own end of life.

It is important for both our politicians and the community at large to understand that, even with our excellent world-class palliative care, the Australian Palliative Care Outcome Collaboration figures show that severe symptoms of suffering continue to occur in approximately 15 per cent of people up to the time of death.

Inability to control all suffering at end of life is recognised by the majority of doctors, with polling by the leading medical publication Australian Doctor in 2016 revealing two out of three supported VAD law reform.

Sadly, as has been revealed by numerous in-depth parliamentary inquiries including the cross-party endof-life inquiry chaired by Aaron Harper, there are significant numbers of people with intolerable suffering having extremely poor deaths and, in the absence of a legal alternative, terminally ill people are taking drastic actions to end their own suffering.

Copious evidence clearly demonstrates that VAD legislation safeguards work and that the so-called “slippery slope” arguments by opponents to VAD legislation have no basis.

For Queensland to join Victoria and West Australia in having VAD legislation, we need the majority of politicians elected at the upcoming polls to be as clearly supportive of VAD law reform and with as much compassion and awareness of end-of-life facts as Aaron Harper.

DR SID FINNIGAN, MBBS, FRANZCO, Queensland State Convenor, Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice, Bonogin.

CONTROVERSIAL: Two Voice of the North correspondents have strong but opposing views about matters being investigated by an end-of-life parliamentary inquiry chaired by Thuringowa MP Aaron Harper.