There is no more fundamental expression of individual freedom than the
right to decide what you do with your own body.
If the law prevents rational adults from making free choices about what we
can do with our own bodies then we are not really free at all, because our bodies do not belong to us but to the State.
When cancer, degenerative disease or some other
ailment renders our life no longer worth living, if we are genuinely free we
should be able to choose to end our lives. We should be able to escape pain and
the tragic indignities of a failing body and die painlessly and peacefully, as
medical technology currently permits.
While most fair-minded people accept that painlessly terminating the
suffering of animals is a humane act of compassion, and this is recognised by
the law, the law prohibits the application of the same principle to our own
species.
The Liberal Democratic Party, as a party that supports individual rights and
freedom of choice, rejects this cruel double standard.
The LDP believes in the inalienable right of individuals to end their lives
painlessly, at the time of their choosing, and is committed to ensuring that
those who are suffering from terminal illness or crippling degenerative disease
are legally able to obtain assistance to end their lives with dignity.
Despite opinion polls that show around 70% of Australians are in favour of
some form of voluntary euthanasia, in 1997 with the tacit support of both the
Liberal and Labor parties, Kevin Andrews MP succeeded in pushing a private
members Bill through Federal Parliament that overturned the first law to
legalise voluntary euthanasia in Australia, enacted in the Northern Territory.
Providing assistance to commit suicide still remains a serious crime in all
states and territories of Australia. Three states have life imprisonment as the
maximum penalty, in others the maximum penalty varies from 10 to 25 years.
One system of values should not be imposed on the rest of society. In the
case of voluntary euthanasia the denial of free choice may result in a slow and
painful death. Such paternalism should not be tolerated.
The LDP is committed to the repeal of the Andrews Act and to enacting
legislation to allow all adult Australians the right to assisted
suicide provided there are appropriate safety mechanisms to ensure consent is
given freely and independently witnessed.
It also supports the right of those who may wish to end
their lives to acquire the information they require to do so, and of others to write and publish it for their benefit.
