TOWNSVILLE Bishop Tim Harris said his “heart sank” when he attended a public hearing on voluntary assisted dying in Townsville on Monday – one of seven being held across the state before controversial legislation can be voted on by Queensland MPs.
In an letter written for the Townsville Bulletin, Bishop Harris said one speaker in support of VAD described what happens to racehorses that fell and were injured and were put down.
“The implication was we need to be practical and put human beings down too when they are at the end of their lives,” Bishop Harris wrote.
“Human beings are not horses and cannot be compared to them (horses) on the racetrack. Human beings are in a category of their own and must be treated as such.
“We accompany human beings uniquely made in the image and likeness of God. We care for them and never give up on them.”
Bishop Harris said palliative care was seriously underfunded and “if this were rectified people would have a real alternative to voluntary assisted dying.”
“I see the march towards VAD as a march in the wrong direction. I see us surrendering to a state government that has not given the public the access to adequate palliative care,” he wrote.
Palliative care experts estimate an extra $275 million a year is needed to improve palliative care services across the entire state – far more than the $171 million over six years the Queensland Government has pledged so far.
“I am sorry if my views offend, but these views come after 28 years as a priest looking after and caring for the dying within the course of my ministry,” Bishop Harris wrote.
With a VAD Bill due to be debated and voted on in state parliament in September, there is intense public scrutiny about many aspects of the life-or-death proposition.
Queensland doctors have renewed their backing for church-run hospitals and aged care services demanding the right to refuse access to VAD in their facilities.
Proposed laws would allow patients at church-run facilities who request help to die but are too sick to be moved to bring in outside doctors to assess them and administer a lethal injection.
A Catholic network of hospitals including St Vincent‘s Health, Mater, St Vincent de Paul Society, and Centacare Brisbane, BallyCara Aged Care, OzCare and Southern Cross Care all oppose euthanasia and are fighting a public campaign in support of properly resourced palliative care as a superior end-of-life treatment.
VAD laws would allow all hospitals and care facilities the right to object to offering euthanasia – so called institutional conscientious objection – however this right could potentially be overridden if a patient was too ill to be moved.
The Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association makes clear in a 2019 submission to parliament that some hospitals with religious affiliations choose not to offer services such as termination of pregnancy, birth control prescriptions, sterilisation or IVF – and that right should extend to VAD.
The submissions said: “In such cases, an institution should inform the public of their conscientious objection and what services they will not provide so that potential patients seeking those services can obtain care elsewhere (for example, this information could be highlighted on the institution’s website, patient brochures and on posters clearly visible at the front of the facility).”
The submission was signed by the former president Australian Medical Association Queensland, Dr Dilip Dhupelia, who is now chairman of the board of the AMAQ Foundation.
VAD laws passed in the South Australia parliament last month explicitly allow hospitals the right to refuse permission for VAD on their premises.
Unlike South Australia, Queensland is attempting to define and regulate institutional conscientious objection.
