Please write in support of the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2007

Your support is vital

Points for letters to MPs in support of the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2007

It is important that Members of Parliament are made aware of the considerable level of community support for VE legislation.

Please write at least to your own Member of Parliament in the House of Assembly. Additionally, if you can manage, photocopy your letter and send to all Members of the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, particularly the latter. This is not as difficult as it sounds! A list can be obtained from Parliament House or through www.parliament.sa.gov.au - also from the government pages in the telephone book. At the bottom of your letter, which is best kept brief, write "cc all Members of Parliament" or those to whom you're sending eg "cc Legislative Council Members". End your letter by asking for a reply. Photocopy the letter, place in envelopes with each member’s name on the front & place these in a large envelope addressed to:

Parliament House, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000. Post or hand deliver.

Pertinent points you may wish to include in your letter:

• I am writing to express support for the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2007.
• I wish to record in the strongest possible terms my support for legalising voluntary euthanasia.
• Please accept this submission in support of legalizing voluntary euthanasia.
• Voluntary euthanasia is an act of caring; it is wrong to describe it as killing, as opponents of voluntary euthanasia do.
• Legalising voluntary euthanasia, as an option of last resort in medical practice, will encourage greater research into cures.
• It is not only the possibility of pain, though that is bad enough, if it cannot be relieved. What concerns me is lingering on, when all hope of a reasonable quality of life is gone.
• I am now . . years old. I want the peace of mind that the legal option of voluntary euthanasia would give me if my dying process became too awful. It would be such a relief.
• It is my life and I should have the right to say when I have had enough.
• It would give me confidence in my doctor to know that he/she would be willing, in the last resort, to help me to die at my request.
• I do not believe that a loving God would want us to endure unnecessary suffering at the end of life.
• When we are suffering with no reasonable prospect of a cure, we should be able to say we have had enough.
• We should all have the choice of asking for help to die if we are terminally ill and suffering intolerably.
• A doctor should be allowed to help me without fear of breaking the law.
• I object to the present law prohibiting voluntary euthanasia because it imposes the beliefs of others upon me.
• Legislation is supported by 80% of South Australians (Newspoll 2007).
• It is possible to enact legislation with stringent safeguards against abuse & it is your responsibility as a lawmaker to do so.
• Doctors are in a terrible position. They dare not discuss the subject because it is illegal. The patients are in a worse position for the same reason.
• I do not fear the pain but loss of control over vital faculties and total dependence on others is a real concern to me.
• We know that doctors help many people die, and they do not always get their consent. This is because it cannot be discussed. It will be much better to have it regulated so that it can be brought into the open.

Issued by: South Australian Voluntary Euthanasia Society Inc. (SAVES)