Rabbis condemn ‘dying with dignity’ proposals
ORTHODOX rabbis have condemned proposals to amend Australian laws to ease restrictions on assisting the ending of life for terminally ill patients.
ORTHODOX rabbis have condemned proposals to amend Australian laws to ease restrictions on assisting the ending of life for terminally ill patients.
A Senate committee is currently holding an inquiry into the proposals, based on an exposure draft for sweeping changes to existing laws surrounding palliative care.
The draft, titled Medical Services (Dying With Dignity) Bill 2014, was put forward by Dr Richard Di Natale, a Greens Senator and the party’s health spokesperson.
It calls for laws to be relaxed so that doctors can more easily administer life-ending procedures without incurring civil, criminal and disciplinary sanctions.
The Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA) has made a submission strongly condemning the proposals, stating they “are immoral, have nothing to do with the provision of medical services and should be rejected out of hand”, that they are “couched in clever and misleading language” and would “open a Pandora’s box of potential abuse”.
ORA was particularly concerned at the discretion given to doctors to interpret a patient’s wishes based on “good faith”.
“Is it impossible to conceive that once we cross the line and start allowing homicide and suicide, that one day a society immune to taking life will start to allow it for the aged, the handicapped and even those that may feel different than us and all ‘in good faith’?”
The ORA submission recalled that euthanasia was part of Nazi ideology “targeting the ill and the disabled”.
“Society must have as one of its foundations that there can be no such thing as a life not worth living,” ORA stated.
ORA also expressed concern that if assisted suicide becomes more acceptable, standards of pain relief will decline.
“We simply do not recognise that any person has a ‘right’ to end their own life and certainly no person has the ‘right’ to end or assist in the ending of the life of another.
“Where is the source for that ‘right’? Is it in our constitution? Is it in the Bible? Is it in any declaration on human rights? The very foundation of all human rights is the sanctity of life,” the submission stated.
PETER KOHN
ORA president Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant.
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