NT Plan to Euthanise Mentally Ill Proves Euthanasia Critics Right

The sanctity of life is the bedrock of our civilisation, the foundation for peace, and the essence of law and order. If life is not sacred, then these are entirely meaningless. We are then left to choose between wild anarchy or wilful autocracy.

In the face of this most basic of truths, those in positions of power seem intent on devaluing life, as if it has no consequences.  

We saw this during the last week, when the embattled Northern Territory Labor Government issued a survey gauging public support for euthanasia for those suffering from mental ill-health. Widely criticised for being one-sided and insensitive, the survey itself is symptomatic of a much larger problem.

The Federal Government and State and Territory Governments have abandoned their responsibility to deliver the mental healthcare services their residents – and in particular, their regional communities – so desperately need.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for young Australians below the age of 25, and men below the age of 50. Every single day, nine Australians take their own life. It’s a scourge and an epidemic.

In the Northern Territory, mental health conditions contribute to double the burden of disease. And Indigenous Australians account for over double the number of total deaths by suicide – and triple the number of suicides among young Australians.

These are lives cut short by people at their lowest point. Suicide is the problem. Suicide cannot be the Government’s solution to reducing pressures on hospitals and mental health budgets.

All too often, mentally ill people blame themselves for their anguish.  We can’t have government aiding and abetting this pain by pointing to euthanasia as an option to relieve their burdens and the burdens on others.

Nor should they try and deceive people by wrapping the idea of suicide up in euphemisms like “palliative psychiatric care”. They’ll describe it as mercy and an imperative. But you cannot dress this up.

The NT’s proposal runs contrary to all of the good work being done across the country to keep people with a mental illness safe and alive – to reaffirm that their lives matter.

Instead, we are talking about doctors killing mentally ill people, sanctioned by the Territory Government, because those mentally ill people no longer want to live.

Those severely afflicted by very poor mental health are likely not of sound mind.  And for those that are of sound mind, poor mental health should not be a death sentence because as painful as it is at the time for those people and their loved ones, it is often transitory.  There is often a light at the end of the tunnel with appropriate care.

Instead of addressing the shortfalls in mental healthcare, Australia would be normalising suicide for the mentally ill.

This isn’t a scare campaign. It’s no longer hypothetical. These are not borderline cases. These issues are being litigated and legislated right now, across Australia and the western world.

Euthanasia opponents warned about this threat when States and Territories legalised so called “Voluntary Assisted Dying”. Incrementally its being expanded to include children and those like older people, who can no longer speak for themselves.

Last year, the NT Government released its Suicide Prevention Implementation Plan. This year, they’re talking about making suicide a viable and even attractive choice for those who are struggling immensely with loneliness, fear, anguish and sadly sometimes unspeakable torment. 

Northern Territorians have a Chief Minister and a Government which has bankrupted the territory, and a Party which has decimated the mental health, telehealth, and disability sector across regional Australia.

Instead of boosting mental health services and outcomes, they’re normalising suicide for our most vulnerable Australians, many of whom do not have an advocate or a voice to speak for them.

And what we are seeing is governments around the country using euthanasia to save money on their aged care hospital and mental health budgets. For instance, in NSW the Labor Government has cut $150 million from the palliative care budget which simplify incentivises euthanasia as a choice.

In a country as prosperous as Australia how can we have vulnerable people in regional communities, who can’t access the services they need, forced to accept death as their only healthcare option.

The effect of all of this is that we will see those at rock-bottom, without hope, choosing to die rather than to be a burden.

The right to die will quickly become the duty to die.

The NT’s proposed euthanasia laws is not just a fundamental breach of the inviolable right to life. It’s an abrogation of duty from the Northern Territory Labor Government.  

Malcolm Muggeridge said that “Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account”. Mental illness cannot devalue or disqualify life.

It’s time for Governments of all colours and at every level to reconsecrate life and rededicate themselves to their primary duty: to keep Australians safe.

Tackle the big issues around social media, substance abuse, and the destruction of the family unit which is driving our mental health crisis. Invest in mental healthcare access.

Normalising suicide cannot be our strategy.