Western Australia
Bill 108 (2010) Voluntary Euthanasia Bill
What follows are the parts of a
euthanasia bill which pertain to protection
of freedom of conscience.
It does not appear that the attending medical
practitioner can delegate the act of euthanasia
to anyone else.
Note:
- the purposes of the Act set out in
Section 4 do not include the
protection of conscientious objectors;
- the protection under Section 5 extends
to everyone, not just medical practitioners;
- Section 8 explicitly recognizes that a
medical practitioner may refuse to assess a
euthanasia request, and no obligation is
imposed by law to refer or otherwise assist
the applicant to find a willing
practitioner.
- Section 15 provides protection from
civil and criminal liability and
disciplinary proceedings for those involved
in processing and fulfilling euthanasia
requests, but does not offer similar
protection to an objector under Section 5.
It is possible that the section could be
interpreted to provide such protection, but,
particularly in view of purposes of the bill
(Section 4), this is by no means certain.
- There is no provision to protect persons
who object to euthanasia for reasons of
conscience from discrimination in education
or employment.
4. Purpose of Act
It is the purpose of this Act to
provide immunity from criminal or civil liability to
a person who does or omits to do any thing that is
required to give effect to the provisions of this
Act, provided that what is done or omitted to be
done, is done in accordance with this Act.
5. No obligation
No person may be compelled to do or omit to do
any thing required or permitted under this Act if
that act or omission is contrary to that person's
conscience or beliefs.
8. Referral of request to medical practitioner
(1) A request may be referred to a medical
practitioner, who may or may not agree to assess
that request.
(5) If a particular medical practitioner does not
agree to assess a particular request, an applicant
may make that same request to other medical
practitioners.
15. Immunity from criminal or civil liability
(1) An applicant, the applicant's medical
practitioner, the second assessing medical
practitioner, the observing medical practitioner and
any other person who does or omits to do any thing
required or permitted under this Act:
(a) does not incur any criminal
or civil liability; and
(b) is not liable to any
disciplinary proceeding; and
(c) is not liable to any other
negative action from any relevant professional
bodies, if what the person did, or omitted to do, in
relation to the relevant applicant, was done in
accordance with this Act.
(2) A person who does not do any thing required
or permitted under this Act, but who provides
incidental practical or emotional support to the
applicant, does not incur any criminal or civil
liability by reason of having provided that support.