MEDIA RELEASE
14 June 2008
STATEMENT REGARDING THE MEDICAL TREATMENT
(PHYSICIAN ASSISTED DYING) BILL 2008
FROM DR PHILIP FREIER,
ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE
The Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008 currently before State Parliament
permits doctors to prescribe a drug to end the life of a patient who is ‘suffering intolerably
from a terminal or advanced incurable illness.’ While the desire to end the life of such a patient
is motivated by compassion, such a move represents a drastic departure from the medical
profession’s traditional ethical commitment not to end a patient's life, but to do all that is
reasonable to protect and care for the life of the patient.
Euthanasia is a complex ethical issue. In brief, the current position of the Anglican Church is
that it is committed both to the principle of the sanctity of life and the provision of the best
palliative care for the terminally ill.
In the vast majority of cases – 95 percent – pain can be managed through appropriate palliative
care and medication. In the small number of cases – five percent – where pain is only partially
alleviated our efforts must go into finding appropriate treatment and further developing
palliative care.
The Bill affects not only those who are dying, but also those who have an advanced incurable
illness. The harmful effects of such a wide scope may be profound.
The fear of being a burden is a major risk to the survival of those who are incurably ill; if
euthanasia – understood as a deliberate medical intervention to hasten death - were to become
legal then this sense of burden would greatly increase, for there would be a moral pressure to
end one’s life for the sake of others.
Legalising euthanasia in this way could also undermine the ideal and practice of providing
ongoing love and support to the terminally or incurably ill, something which is at the core of
our humanity.
For further information contact:
Penny Mulvey on 0403 063 499
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