'You're all gutless': euthanasia bill defeated

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'You're all gutless': euthanasia bill defeated

NSW parliament has voted against a bill giving people with a terminal illness the right to end their own suffering by choosing the manner and timing of their death.

"They will be screaming out in frustration," said Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who introduced the bill to the NSW upper house last week.

Annoyed: Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.

Annoyed: Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.Credit: Jonathan Carroll

As if on cue, a man in a wheelchair yelled out from the public gallery: "You people have no right, you’re all gutless."

The house also voted against sending the matter to a parliamentary committee for further investigation.
It followed emotional scenes on Thursday morning, when MPs debated the bill giving terminally ill people who are over 18 and mentally capable the right to an assisted death.

Labor MP Penny Sharpe was reduced to tears: "To the many who have shared your stories, I have not forgotten, nor will I forget, the pain and suffering you are going through."

Liberal MP David Clarke cited overseas studies that found in most cases euthanasia was carried out without the consent of patients.

Christian Democrat MP Paul Green said God gave life and only God had the power to take it away.
Labor MP Helen Westwood cried when talking about the death of her father.

"We can’t run away because issues are complex... we are capable of actually drafting and enacting bills into laws that are complex," she implored.

Ms Faehrmann foreshadowed the bill’s defeat, which was voted down 23 votes to 13.

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"If this bill fails today terminally ill people will continue to take their own lives violently, if they can, some doctors will continue to administer huge doses of morphine to patients in an attempt to end their suffering, patients will starve and dehydrate themselves to death."

The Greens MP, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years working on the legislation, said it was what the people of NSW want.

"They will look at this in such a frustrated way at the end of today."

Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) NSW director David Hutt welcomed the bill’s defeat, saying it would have put society’s most vulnerable people at risk.

"This was a convincing vote," he added.

However Ms Faehrmann flagged the issue may not be over, saying three lower house MPs had indicated they would try to carry it forward.

"This is not the end. It is an inevitable reform," she said.

AAP

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