X-Message-Number: 7045 Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 16:24:16 +1000 (EAST) From: (Kitty te Riele) Subject: Australia update NSW = New South Wales, State of which Sydney is the capital. October 16, 1996, Sydney Morning Herald Carr rules out State poll on euthanasia By DAVID HUMPHRIES, MARK RILEY and NATHAN VASS The Premier, Mr Carr, has ruled out a referendum in NSW on euthanasia, saying there was not sufficient "community desire" to follow up on the suggestion of an Independent MP, Dr Peter Macdonald. On the eve of an historic debate in the NSW Parliament, when two non-parliamentarians will address the MPs for the first time in the State's history, Dr Macdonald last night foreshadowed a motion to establish an all-parties committee to frame a referendum question for 1999. If debated today or tomorrow, the motion will give MPs the opportunity for an indicative vote on where the Parliament stands on the euthanasia question. Any such vote has been resisted by Mr Carr, who structured today's debate so there would be no resolution or communique on which parliamentarians would show their hands. The debate is the NSW response to last month's death in the Northern Territory of Mr Robert Dent, who was dying of prostate cancer when he became the first person in the world to have his life ended under lawful euthanasia. Dr Macdonald, the MP for Manly, is one of a handful of MPs who will speak today in favour of euthanasia. He said yesterday he was comfortable with there being no formal vote at the conclusion of today's "talkfest" because a resounding defeat would likely put back the euthanasia cause. His proposed committee would include pro- and anti-euthanasia MPs. At least 50 MPs are expected to speak today for up to 15 minutes each. Most are opposed to euthanasia and the issue is considered electorally so sensitive that some pro-euthanasia MPs have chosen not to identify themselves for fear of a backlash. The Premier, a convert to the anti-euthanasia cause, said last night the issue was so emotive the proposed Macdonald committee could not possibly evolve a referendum question acceptable to both sides. The highest-ranked politician sympathetic to the pro-euthanasia cause, the Minister for Health and Deputy Premier, Dr Refshauge, will tell Parliament he favours the Victorian model of medical power of attorney, in which others can act to ensure loved ones are not kept alive against their wishes. "I would want the ability to take my life if the ability to function is so diminished that I believed the life left was not worthwhile," Dr Refshauge said last night. But the Opposition branded today's debate a stunt. The Opposition Leader, Mr Collins, told Parliament the debate was intended to disguise the absence of a government legislative agenda. He said the emphasis should be more on palliative care providing services to make death more comfortable for the terminally ill, rather than assisting death. A Labor backbencher, Mr Bob Harrison, declared he would quit the ALP if the Government introduced a euthanasia bill. The practice was indefensible morally and ethically, he said. An Upper House Independent MP, Mr Richard Jones, a member of a small working group of pro-euthanasia parliamentarians, said he would consider bringing on a private member's bill if today's debate showed sufficient support. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7045