As Victorian MPs debate a bill on assisted dying, it is vital that they examine evidence and not just rhetoric says QUT Law Professor Ben White.
Professor White, Director of QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR), said assisted dying was no longer a matter of “if” but “when”, with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 introduced into the Victorian Parliament last week to legalise voluntary assisted dying in the state.
In an article in The Conversation, authored with fellow ACHLR Director Professor Lindy Willmott and QUT senior law lecturer Dr Andrew McGee, Professor White said with Victorian MPs to be offered a conscience vote on the bill, “interest groups on both sides of the debate are lobbying fiercely”.
He said it was important that politicians, and the public, closely analyse the claims made in the debate and distinguish between “moral” ones based on what is right or wrong, and those based on facts and evidence, and the reliability of the evidence.
Read the full article on The Conversation.
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