Assisted dying not our way, say elders

Community elders have warned that introducing voluntary euthanasia could undermine indigenous communities’ trust in the health system.

Brisbane community Aboriginal elder Dr Rose Elu is against euthanasia. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Church leaders and community elders have warned that ­remote indigenous communities are bitterly opposed to voluntary euthanasia and its introduction would undermine trust in the health system.

The concern is the sleeper issue in Western Australia and Queensland in the intensifying debate over the expansion of ­assisted-dying law from Victoria to states with big Aboriginal and islander populations.

Rose Elu, an elder in Brisbane’s Torres Strait Islander community, said she recognised the compassionate argument for easing the suffering of dying people, but the taking of human life would offend the deep sense of spirituality and Christian faith permeating remote indigenous communities, whatever the circumstances.

“Because of the strength and wisdom of our faith, we feel that when the time comes for someone to depart, that is in God’s hands,” she said yesterday after Sunday service at St John’s Anglican Cathedral.

“It would be very difficult for the people to understand why you would do this, why you would take action to cause someone to die. It is not our way.”

Two of the nation’s most senior church leaders, Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Mark Coleridge and Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall, say that voluntary assisted dying legislation before the West Australian parliament and moves to introduce a law in Queensland send “mixed messages” when indigenous suicide rates are soaring. Victoria’s right-to-die law came into effect only eight weeks ago.

The Anglican bishop of north Queensland, Keith Joseph, whose diocese spans more than 800,000sq km from Mackay to the Papua New Guinea border, said VAD could rebound on healthcare providers.

“There is a level of fear and discomfort of health institutions in general for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders … partly because that is where people go and die,” he said.

“If it is known that is also a place where people are killed — and you might be talking about a hospital or a clinic where euthanasia is practised — then that mistrust is going to be further ­enhanced, and more so for a community practitioner out in the bush. If he or she is in a community that already has reservations about healthcare, is largely ­opposed to euthanasia, and that person is carrying out voluntary assisted dying, then how is that going to possibly help their status and ability to work in the community?”

West Australian Labor senator Pat Dodson has called for extensive consultation with indigenous communities and health services over VAD ­because, “it is First ­Nations people who are at higher risk of being in a situation were ­assisted dying may take place”.

Indigenous state MP Josie Farrer from the Kimberley in Western Australia’s far north says she is conflicted by VAD for cultural reasons, though she supports the McGowan government legislation.

“Where I come from, it is our belief in our traditional culture that if a person receives assistance in passing on, their spirit will be trapped,” Ms Farrer told state parliament last week when debate on the bill opened. “We ­believe that when it is your time, it is your time.”

Bishop Joseph, who holds a PhD in medical ethics, said he had not encountered a single indigenous person who was in favour of VAD — though he acknowledged it was not a priority for communities confronting entrenched public health, social and law and order challenges.

Cape York indigenous leader Gerhardt Pearson, an observant Lutheran from the former mission town of Hope Vale and executive director of the Balkanu community development organisation, said the voice of indigenous people needed to be heard in the debate.