By Wesley J Smith
Assisted
suicide is being legalized all over Australia, and I fear the country is going
to go the dark route Canada has after it legalized euthanasia. Case in point:
There is a bill before the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to legalize
assisted suicide. The Human Rights Commission criticizes the proposal for restricting
assisted-suicide eligibility to adults:
Improvements
to the proposed scheme:
We
detail below certain of our earlier recommendations that have not been
incorporated into the Bill.
1. Access for
Children and Young People under 18: the current scheme is limited to
individuals over the age of 18 years old. Human rights principles require due
consideration for the rights of children and young people, including their
right to access health care without discrimination and their right to have
their views taken into account.
It is the Commission’s view that this extends to decisions for a child or young
person to voluntarily end their life with dignity in the same circumstances as
adults: namely where they have a condition that is advanced, progressive and
expected to cause their death, where they are suffering intolerably, where they
are acting voluntarily, and where they have demonstrated maturity and capacity
to make such a decision. We recognise that there may need to be additional
steps and safeguards for children and young people, particularly where the views
of parents and carers differ from the young person or from each other.
If
adopted, this means that “mature” minors would be able to be made dead without
their parents’ permission and children no matter how young could be put down.
Canada isn’t there yet, but the same approach
has been seriously proposed in that country. Belgium and the
Netherlands already permit euthanizing children, and the Netherlands allows
infanticide under the “Groningen
Protocol.”
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