As Darwin debates a new assisted dying law – the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill – the very protections written into it are already targeted by the people who campaigned for the law.
by RIGHT TO LIFE and Haylea Kennedy
The bill being debated
Right now, in Darwin, the Northern Territory Parliament is debating a bill that would make the Northern Territory the last jurisdiction in Australia to legalise assisted dying. It’s expected to pass this week on a conscience vote.
But here’s what should worry you: the “safeguards” being built into this bill are already being targeted for removal, before it’s even law.
Strip away the acronyms and here’s what the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill actually does:
- It legalises assisted dying in the NT for the first time since it was overturned by Canberra in 1997.
- It limits eligibility to people with a prognosis of 12 months or less to live.
- The patient can ask their doctor about assisted dying as an option at any time; a doctor cannot be the one to raise it first.
That third point is the one being fought over hardest this week. In the media, it’s almost always called a “gag clause.” As usual, language is being used to imply something quite different from what’s actually happening — and how often are we seeing that play out in Australia lately?
What a “gag clause” really is
“Gag” implies censorship — someone being silenced against his will. That’s not what this provision does. The patient can ask his doctor about assisted dying as an option at any time, and the doctor can answer honestly. What the clause does is keep the doctor from being the one to introduce death as a treatment option to a patient who hasn’t asked for it.
We need to call it what it is: a safeguard against a serious power imbalance.
A dying patient is frightened, exhausted, often in pain, and trained to trust his doctor’s judgement above almost anyone else’s.
If a doctor can raise assisted suicide unprompted, that judgement carries enormous weight — even when it isn’t meant as pressure, a patient can hear “have you thought about ending things” from their doctor as something close to a recommendation. The clause exists to make sure the idea comes from the patient, not from the person holding authority over his care.
Calling it a “gag” reframes a protection for patients as a restriction on doctors. That’s the language fight to watch, and it’s exactly the provision now being targeted for removal.
Push to widen assisted dying already underway
Andrew Denton, founder of the advocacy group Go Gentle Australia, has publicly welcomed this bill. But in the same breath, he and others — including the NT branch of the Australian Medical Association and the Labor opposition — are already pushing to strip out the very safeguards it contains: both the 12-month prognosis limit and the rule stopping doctors from raising assisted dying unprompted.
Think about what that means. The bill hasn’t even been passed yet, and the people who campaigned for this law are already campaigning to widen it. That’s not a slippery slope hypothetical, it’s happening in the same parliamentary sitting.
If the prognosis limit goes, who is “terminal” becomes far less clear. If doctors can raise assisted suicide unprompted, a sick, frightened, or depressed patient could hear it offered to him before they’ve asked, from the person he trusts most for medical guidance.
If you live in the Northern Territory and disagree with this bill, or you’re worried about how quickly its safeguards are being targeted, contact your local MLA this week, before the vote. (See details below)
This article first appeared at Right to Life and is reproduced here by permission. Right to Life is an action group dedicated to defending the inalienable human right to life from conception to natural death. Its work seeks to influence both culture and law in Australia, helping build a society where every human life is protected and valued.
Sources:
- ABC News — Voluntary assisted dying to become legal in the NT, as bill secures majority support
- ABC News — MLAs brace for debate as CLP backbenchers flood NT government with voluntary assisted dying amendments
- Wikipedia — Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995
- ABC News — NT politician proposes amendments to own party’s VAD bill ahead of parliament vote
- Neos Kosmos — Assisted dying clause gagging doctors set to be debated
Contact your MLA (NT residents only):
- Find your electorate and MLA at the NT Legislative Assembly website (nt.gov.au / parliament.nt.gov.au).
- Email them directly — a short, personal message matters more than a form letter.
- Ask them to vote against the bill, or at minimum to reject amendments that remove the 12-month prognosis rule and the doctor gag clause.