Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

Broken Bay Bishop says Victoria should pay attention to NSW parliament’s decision on euthansia

byMark Bowling
22 November 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
fight against euthanasia

Euthanasia end game: Queensland MPs will debate the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill in September.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
fight against euthanasia
Culture of death: “While all of us are rightfully moved by personal stories of pain and suffering too often experienced by our beloved at the end of their lives, none of us should think that a deliberate act of killing them is a genuinely human thing to do.”

EUTHANASIA and assisted suicide are national issues being played out state-by-state, according to Broken Bay Bishop Peter Comensoli.

Bishop Comensoli has applauded the narrow defeat of a voluntary assisted dying bill in New South Wales during a late-night sitting of parliament on November 18, but warned of the prospect of legislation in other states. He made the comment before Victorian parliamentarians were also due to vote on an assisted suicide bill.

“The bill has been defeated in NSW, but the issue has not gone away,” he said. “As debate on assisted suicide continues in the Victorian Parliament, I hope that they will be attentive to the decision of their NSW counterparts.”

There is no major push for euthanasia legislation in Queensland, although Labor did support the position at its 2017 state conference.

Bishop Comensoli thanked doctors and nurses for their voice in informing parliamentarians in New South Wales on “the inherent risks legalising assisted suicide poses”.

“While all of us are rightfully moved by personal stories of pain and suffering too often experienced by our beloved at the end of their lives, none of us should think that a deliberate act of killing them is a genuinely human thing to do,” he said.

“The trauma of pain and suffering that might emerge in people as they are dying, cannot be overcome by eliminating them.

“May our better impulse always be towards compassionate care and sacrificial accompaniment of those who are dying.”

Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating stepped up his attack on Victorian Labor for supporting an assisted suicide bill, describing it as “defeatism of those who think the struggle at the end of life is a struggle in vain”.

Buoyed by the narrow defeat of assisted dying legislation in the New South Wales Parliament, Mr Keating said it was irresponsible for Victoria to be offering solutions to the ill, born of the “pessimism of suicide”.

Related Stories

People opt for euthanasia ‘out of fear’ of being a burden

Brisbane Catholic doctor voicing the risks and unsafe aspects of VAD laws

Everyone has a right to life, not a right to death, pope says

“By a whisker, the NSW upper house has preserved the country’s ethical clarity,” he said in a statement.

“The (Legislative) Council didn’t cave in to the defeatism of those who think the struggle at the end of life is a struggle in vain.

“The state should be giving a lead on the optimism of life not the pessimism of suicide.

“We have so many young Australians suiciding these days there should be no lesson for them from state parliaments.

“What we need is kindness, compassion and palliative care.”

Pope Francis reiterated the Catholic Church’s stance on euthanasia at a meeting with doctors at the Vatican on November 16, The Catholic Herald reported.

The Pope addressed questions related to using medical interventions for end-of-life care that may not “serve the integral good of the person”.

He said withdrawing or withholding excessive or unnecessary treatment was “completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death”.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Johnathan Thurston offers Catholic priest free air travel to say Mass for remote Aboriginal community

Next Post

Meet the winners of the 2017 Community Leader Awards

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

Hot Topics

People opt for euthanasia ‘out of fear’ of being a burden

6 April 2022
Doctors make ‘dramatic mistakes’, physician warns ahead of Queensland euthanasia vote
QLD

Brisbane Catholic doctor voicing the risks and unsafe aspects of VAD laws

13 March 2022
Life: Pope Francis embraces a woman during his general audience in the Paul VI hall. Photo: CNS
Vatican

Everyone has a right to life, not a right to death, pope says

10 February 2022
Next Post
Community Leader Award winners

Meet the winners of the 2017 Community Leader Awards

students writing

Fees in some Queensland Catholic schools to rise because of Gonski plan

Holy Cross, Wooloowin students yarnbombing

Wooloowin students knitting hope for refugees

Popular News

  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Queensland election: The pro-life political parties committed to abortion law reforms

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What is lust?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies
QLD

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

by Joe Higgins
20 May 2022
0

BRISBANE grandmother Gwendoline Grant has clocked up 15,000 hours cuddling and caring for sick and premature babies...

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

20 May 2022
Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping