NSW voluntary assisted dying bill could spark coalition war

Our state could make euthanasia legal but many believe the Premier will need to rule out a conscience vote to prevent a war inside the coalition.

A draft bill to legalise euthanasia in NSW could spark a civil war in the coalition when parliament returns.

The electorate is just as divided between people like cancer sufferer Judith Daley who wants her right to die with dignity and Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher who insists the law would be a “disastrous move”.

Conservative Liberals have demanded Premier Gladys Berejiklian rule out a conscience vote on the issue.

Traditionally, euthanasia would be an issue on which Liberal MPs would vote on their conscience. However, multiple Liberals believe Ms Berejiklian will need to rule out a conscience vote to prevent a war inside her own party.

Cancer patient Judith Daley says the choice to die should be hers. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Cabinet must consider what to do with Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s euthanasia bill, a draft of which he released on Monday. That discussion will only occur when Parliament resumes and the bill is introduced.

Ms Berejiklian in December last year, said she would prefer the topic to not be debated “given everything else we’re facing” and because it was rejected in 2017 by one vote in the upper house.

The Premier declined to comment on the draft bill on Monday.

Ms Daley, 76, said the choice to die should be hers when she is “gurgling, not breathing” at the end of her life.

She is battling lung cancer, emphysema, bronchiectasis and late onset asthma.

The former Education Department officer, private investigator and extras actor has been in and out of hospital nine times with infections, pneumonia and a collapsed lung.

“It’s been a bit of a stupid medical merry-go-round I just can’t get off,” she said.

Despite her suffering, Ms Daley wants to live. But she wants the option to “die gracefully” when her condition deteriorates.

“I won’t be breathing at the end of my life, I’ll be gurgling. No one else knows when it is going to become absolutely intolerable for me,” she said.

“If people don’t want to use it, I support them 100 per cent. If they believe there is a higher meaning in their suffering, well please, suffer. Just don’t make that choice for me.”

Archbishop Fisher said assisted suicides were a “disastrous move” for NSW.

“Whether we neglect (the elderly) to death or offer them to volunteer for an early death, we are saying their lives are not the equal of ours. That they, or we, would be better off if they were dead,” he said.

He said safeguards would inevitably be relaxed in the future

Assisted dying laws have been passed in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia while a bill is before the Queensland parliament.

“Already in Australia’s short experience of this we have found the law applied to far more people than was first expected and there has already been a concerted campaign to relax the supposed “safeguards” that were put in place to sell those laws,” he said.

“Looking overseas we see voluntary assisted suicide laws in some countries - originally available on a voluntary basis for dying adults only - gradually extended to those whose condition is not terminal, or not even medical, and to children and the unconscious. We should not go there.”