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Keywords: Assisted Dying

  • AUSTRALIA

    The gates to the secret house of death

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 October 2024

      The traditions of All Saints Day and All Souls Day invite a rare reflection on death — a topic largely sidelined in contemporary Australia. Amid global events and various cultural spectacles, these days offer a quiet reminder to consider how we honour the dead and what that reveals about our values.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Easter immortality project

    • Justine Toh
    • 27 March 2024
    2 Comments

     As the world grapples with the promise and perils of technological advancement, billionaire Bryan Johnson's quest for eternal life underscores a broader societal fascination with defying death. Can science truly outpace the inevitability of mortality? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Can debate ever do harm?

    • Holly Lawford-Smith
    • 02 February 2024
    1 Comment

    How can we make progress on the question of whether debate can do harm, and if it can, whether that’s a sufficient reason to suppress particular debates? Or should we adopt a ‘no debate!’ approach to particular topics ourselves?

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  • RELIGION

    Ministering to euthanasia patients

    • Bill Uren
    • 30 January 2024
    8 Comments

    As Australia adopts voluntary assisted dying nationwide, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference addresses ethical challenges for end-of-life care in this new legal landscape. What is to be done when a terminally ill Catholic patient requests access to the sacraments when their intention is to embark on assisted suicide?

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  • RELIGION

    Rediscovering truth in a post-truth world

    • Jānis (John) T. Ozoliņš
    • 03 February 2022
    40 Comments

    As if the Covid-19 pandemic has not been testing enough, modern life has never seemed more difficult than it does at present. We are bombarded on all sides by masses of information, misinformation, expert opinions, and the relentless, strident voices of social media browbeating us into accepting the dogmatic conclusions of leading influencers. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    If life is not sacred...

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 06 October 2021
    40 Comments

    Some weeks ago I wrote about the taking of human life and of the loss of its sacred connotations.  I argued that the decisive consideration governing recent legislation in such issues as abortion and assisted dying has been the appeal to individual choice, supported by compassion for people who suffer from their denial. Whether we welcome this trend or regret it, as I do, we all have an interest in asking what effect it will have on society. In this article I would like to explore this question in a way that opens rather than closes conversation.  

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three ways Queensland’s assisted dying bill goes too far

    • Frank Brennan
    • 15 September 2021
    22 Comments

    The Queensland parliament, like the Victorian parliament four years ago, is committed to legislating for voluntary assisted dying. The bill being considered by the one-chamber Queensland parliament this week basically follows the contours of the Victorian legislation. But there are three major developments proposed that are very worrying in this new field of social experimentation.

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  • RELIGION

    Valuing human life

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 09 September 2021
    24 Comments

    In recent weeks the value of human life has become a topic of public conversation in different contexts. Proposed legislation on abortion and assisted dying has continued to focus attention on it. Debate about loosening COVID restrictions has also balanced the risk of death from the disease with risks to health and economic welfare from lockdowns. In Afghanistan the victory of the Taliban has again raised questions about the morality of the war and the killing involved by both sides.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Voluntary assisted dying via telehealth is another step down a perilous path

    • Hoa Dinh
    • 10 June 2021
    4 Comments

    In legislatures around Australia at present euthanasia is a staple item. It is vital that euthanasia legislation ought to balance the liberty of the invulnerable against the safeguarding of the vulnerable, especially the elderly and people with disabilities.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why has the anti-euthanasia case been so unsuccessful?

    • Margaret Somerville
    • 03 June 2021
    80 Comments

    The case against euthanasia is much more difficult to promote, not because it is weak — it is not — but because it is much more complex.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Questioning the wisdom of legalising euthanasia

    • Margaret Somerville
    • 03 June 2021
    9 Comments

    No one on either side of the debate wants to see people suffer and the euthanasia debate is not about if we will die — we all will at some point. The debate is about how we will die and whether some ways of dying, namely euthanasia, are unethical and dangerous, especially to vulnerable and fragile people, and destructive of important shared values on which we base our societies.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Dying and the question of dignity

    • Annmarie Hosie
    • 25 May 2021
    27 Comments

    Peace, laughter and lightness during dying might seem unlikely, but such experiences are common, not rare. Seeing and sharing in these sudden, strengthening consolations (and receiving them in my own griefs) have taught me about our awesome potential to transcend suffering, and confirmed why we don’t need euthanasia or assisted suicide.

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