State parliament knocks back private member’s bill that would have allowed terminally ill patients to end their lives

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Proposed assisted dying laws have been defeated in the NSW parliament.

After a day of emotional debate in the NSW upper house, with many MPs tearing up as they made their pleas for and against, the controversial draft voluntary assisted dying bill was defeated by 19 votes to 20.

If the proposed legislation passed the upper house, it would have likely fallen through in the legislative assembly with both premier Gladys Berejiklian and opposition leader Luke Foley opposing it.

'Any taboo has gone': Netherlands sees rise in demand for euthanasia Read more

“I worry about the message it sends to a society where some old and frail people feel that they are too much of a burden on their loved ones that they have to end it all,” Foley said.

It is not the first time such laws have been scrapped in NSW parliament, with the rights of the terminally ill bill defeated in its second reading by 23 votes to 13 in 2013.

The private member’s bill, introduced in September by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, would have provided patients 25 years or older, whose deaths are imminent and are in severe pain, a choice to end their lives.

Supporters insisted the bill would give terminally ill patients or those in excruciating pain the option to choose how they die.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters opposing any change to the law also rallied outside parliament on Thursday. Photograph: Ben Rushton/AAP

“To see that happening to your loved one and not have a capacity to do something about it ... is an impossibly hard thing,” Greens MP David Shoebridge said.

Those against the bill cited the need for better palliative care and raised concerns about future amendments potentially removing current safeguards.

“Rather than creating a perceived need for euthanasia, we should be emphasising the advances in medicine and technology that help people,” Labor health spokesman Walt Secord told parliament on Thursday.

We have to get better at supporting patients right to the end of life | Liz Callaghan Read more

Outside parliament on Thursday morning, supporters and opponents rallied in the hope of influencing MPs.

Sheena Goodwin, 68, spoke of the agony she has witnessed as a registered nurse, given palliative care is not always available.

But 73-year-old Martin Burrows, from north-west Sydney, said the final few weeks he and his children spent with his wife as she died of cancer were precious. He argued there must be a better way to deal with painful deaths than “a bill for suicide”.