SYDNEY (LifeSiteNews) – The last Australian State just legalized euthanasia, refusing to adopt any of the amendments proposed during debate, including religious exemptions based on objections of conscience of Catholic medical institutions. The law will force such institutions to allow terminally ill patients who request assisted suicide to be killed on their premises, in violation of Catholic moral teaching.
Last Thursday, the New South Wales Parliament approved the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021 in a 23 to 15 vote. The bill allows euthanasia for the terminally ill who are over 18 and expected to die within six months. Attempts to include religious exemptions for Catholic hospitals and medical institutions were all rejected. The matter prompted quick condemnation of the bill by Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney.
“The disturbing nature of this legislation is compounded by the way the debate over amendments was conducted,” Archbishop Fisher said. “All amendments put forward by those who would seek to make this deadly regime even a little bit safer were rejected.”
“That no meaningful amendments were accepted speaks to a ‘winner takes all’ approach by the proponents of this bill and reveals an ugliness that has invaded our politics. This does not bode well for the protection of our most vulnerable citizens.”
The archbishop vowed to continue fighting to protect the vulnerable at the end of life. “Despite our disappointment,” he said, “our fight for life does not end with this vote. We must redouble our efforts to care for those who are victims of the ‘throwaway culture’ and instead rebuild a culture of life and love in this state.”
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Brigid Meney, director of strategy and mission at Catholic Health Australia, said in a statement on May 19, “Catholic health and aged care providers are disappointed and saddened by the passing of a law that violates their ethic of care.”
Meney explained the details of what the law will mean for Catholic institutions that have presently been free to refuse cooperation in assisted suicide. “This law will force organizations that do not agree with assisted suicide,” she said, “to allow doctors onto their premises to prescribe and even administer restricted drugs with the intention of terminating a resident’s life – without even informing the facility. These laws ignore the rights of staff and residents who may choose to work and live in a particular residential facility because of their opposition to assisted suicide.”
Several Catholic and Protestant healthcare institutions had fought to maintain religious exemptions. The groups included Catholic Health Care Australia, Anglicare, and HammondCare. Religious and conscience-based protections were all rejected.
Pro-life lawmaker Greg Donnelly, a Labor Member of the Legislative Council, who sought to include conscience protections in the bill, called the forcing of institutions with moral objections to cooperate in assisted suicide “utterly repugnant and draconian.”
Broken Bay Bishop Anthony Randazzo also lamented the new law and called for renewed care and genuine charity for those suffering at the end of life.
“A genuinely human society,” Randazzo said, “is not how we decide to eliminate those who suffer, but how we care for them. Now more than ever we must ensure members of our family, friends, those who are alone, the vulnerable in our community know and understand that they are loved, that we will be with them in their journey, and that they are not a burden.”