In view of the considerable difficulties around safely legislating euthanasia or assisted suicide, the WA Parliament needs to answer the following questions:
On what basis Parliament might permit some instances of “one person killing another”, but not other instances?
How will the current policy of suicide prevention align with a new policy that actively allows and implicitly approves some suicides?
Is it not discriminatory to permit only people who are suffering pain or chronic disease to access euthanasia?
Is it not discriminatory to allow only adults to access euthanasia?
Is it ever really possible to frame legislation so that access to euthanasia can never, at any time in the future, be extended to people who are not suffering pain or chronic disease, who are not adults, or who are not competent to give informed consent?
How can Parliament guarantee that laws permitting euthanasia will never be abused?