BRISBANE’S influential Vietnamese Catholic community is petitioning their local member, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, to reject “dangerous” euthanasia laws.
The 3000-strong community, a key part of the Premier’s local supporter base, regularly gathers in the heart of her multicultural suburban electorate of Inala, and is preparing to build a new church and worship centre for rapidly expanding numbers.
An anti-euthanasia petition in both English and Vietnamese, is a late attempt to persuade the Premier to reject euthanasia as the Queensland parliament prepares to start debating a Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill next Tuesday.
“Your parliament is considering introducing euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation – laws that would make it legal to take the lives that we are fighting so hard to protect through this pandemic,” the petition already with hundreds of signatures says.
“You stand in a position where you can act to protect the vulnerable and affirm the value of every human life.
“Please use your position for good, and reject euthanasia and assisted suicide in Queensland.
“We … your community in Inala, reject these laws and ask you to as well.”
The Queensland Premier has publicly supported euthanasia laws, and both major parties will allow MPs a conscience vote.
Thirty of Queensland’s most respected medical specialists have written to MPs in a last-ditch effort to persuade them euthanasia is unsafe and that “properly funded palliative care is the far more compassionate option.”
“Even if assisted suicide is introduced with the strictest of conditions, (former Prime Minister) Paul Keating predicted a politically irresistible push to gradually extend the indications to threaten the most vulnerable,” the letter from doctors says.
“The Queensland VAD bill is a particularly unsafe demonstration of this slippery slope, with less meaningful protections than in other states.
“Pain and other distressing symptoms at the end of life can be dramatically relieved when high quality well-resourced palliative care is delivered early enough.
“When actually faced with a life-limiting illness, most prefer to keep living.
“All Queenslanders should have the choice to live with high quality palliative care, costing an extra $275 million per year.
“If assisted suicide is introduced, without properly funding high quality palliative care from the outset, it will be easy to ignore any future advocacy to improve funding.”
