Have your say on assisted dying laws before it's too late

Time is running out for Queenslanders and other Australians to make their views known to our 93 state MPs on the issue of voluntary assisted dying law reform.

EUTHANASIA: Barbara Spencer's son Troy Thornton had an assisted death in Switzerland. Picture: Patrick Woods

TIME is running out for Queenslanders and other Australians to make their views known to our 93 state MPs on the issue of voluntary assisted dying law reform.

The cross-party Health Committee of the Queensland Parliament is conducting an inquiry into aged care, palliative care, and voluntary assisted dying, and has set an April15 deadline for submissions on its issues paper. This is the first opportunity Queenslanders have had to have their views considered because our State Parliament has not previously examined voluntary assisted dying as other states and territories have done.

The Health Committee must report to Parliament by November30 and before then will hold public hearings where a limited number of people will be invited to give evidence and tell their stories in support of voluntary assisted dying.

But all Queenslanders can have their say right now by lodging a submission before April15.

Information on the inquiry and how to make submissions can be found through the Queensland Parliament website.

Voluntary assisted dying laws will give people wider options at the end of life, and we must see action taken in this current term of the Queensland Parliament.

We must not wait until after the October 2020 state election and let more Queenslanders suffer needlessly.

DAVID MUIR

Chair of the Clem Jones Trust

Indooroopilly

Originally published as Have your say on assisted dying laws before it's too late