LAKE Macquarie MP Greg Piper has joined a historic alliance of crossbench Lower House MPs campaigning for legislation to permit voluntary euthanasia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The MPs will jointly sponsor Greens MP Cate Faehrmann's Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill in the Legislative Assembly.
The bill will be introduced by Ms Faehrmann in the Upper House in early May.
If it passes through the Legislative Council, Mr Piper will work with Greens Member for Balmain Jamie Parker and Independent Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich to ensure its passage through the Legislative Assembly to become law.
"As a mature, educated society, I believe that we should be able to accept the right of a person to determine the time of their own death, when they freely, and with sound mind, choose to do so on the basis that due to illness and suffering their life affords little or no quality of life and is no longer bearable to them," Mr Piper said.
"With appropriate legislative and societal checks and balances, voluntary euthanasia would respect a person's right to self-determine this most important part of their life; it would allow a choice to die with dignity."
The proposed law change is welcomed by locals such as Chris Gavenlock, a former nurse, of Dora Creek.
"The options currently available to NSW residents leaves those people who are suffering illnesses, from which they won't recover, very limited choices," she said. "When all else fails and medical science cannot 'save' us from dying, Australians would like to know that if they were suffering from an incurable illness, they could end their lives with dignity."
