Written by Lorna Seatter Wednesday, 02 December 2009 15:02
AT Curtin University's fourteenth annual ethics lecture, director of the LJ Goodie Bioethics Centre in Glendalough, Father Joseph Parkinson, told listeners he believes there are questions to be raised in public euthanasia debate that have remained absent so far.
Fr Parkinson, who also holds a PhD for his research in moral theology, said he wished to hold a mirror up to the debate at a time when WA Greens MLC Robin Chapple was promising to submit his much-publicised Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2009 in state parliament.
“My reason for choosing this topic is my concern at the standard of public debate surrounding possibility of legislating to allow euthanasia in Western Australia,” Fr Parkinson said.
“I believe, with one or two exceptions, the standard of this public conversation so far has been quite mediocre.”
Fr Parkinson has worked on various ethics committees for nearly 20 years and said he believes the public euthanasia debate includes three main elements - that the public majority is in favour of voluntary euthanasia, that as autonomous persons we should not be impeded from making the choice to die, and that it is the role of parliament to make the choice possible.
Fr Parkinson claims all three arguments are based around one theme – we are autonomous individuals, and that the notion of autonomy has become an accepted truth in western society.
However, Parkinson claims that accepted truth should be challenged.
He argues that every individual act can affect other people’s individual choices, and therefore we are not truly autonomous persons.
Relating this argument to voluntary euthanasia, Fr Parkinson claims euthanasia is not just about one person choosing his or her right to die but includes other people affected by that choice.
“The person who asks for euthanasia is asking for someone else to cause him or her to die,” he said.
“Euthanasia is social, not individual in nature.”
Fr Parkinson also asks the public to consider the reasons why a person chooses death, saying that death in many cases is not the main reason for the choice.
“What does a person really seek when they seek euthanasia?”
“If the request for death is in fact a plea for pain relief, should we not provide pain relief?”
Fr Parkinson said he believes the issue of euthanasia is too complex to be legislated in Australia’s court system.
“When it comes to health, illness and possibly death the law is too blunt an instrument to take care of the complexity of human need.”
