Bad news for assisted dying laws in this state
New South Wales residents have just missed out on making voluntary euthanasia legal after a marathon debate in the Upper House resulted in 19 votes in support of the assisted dying bill and 20 against.
MPs were given a conscience vote on the proposal put forth by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, which would allow terminally ill people over 25 to end their lives with assistance from medical professionals.
Khan admitted he was “disappointed” with the result but plans to keep campaigning for the legislation. “We had what I think is a reasonable expectation that we’d just get over the line [but] obviously we fell short by one,” he told the ABC.
“[But] we’ll continue to talk with the stakeholders, and work out a timing and a campaign. It’s clear that there’s a lot of community support for this. It really needs that campaign to continue and we'll get over the line in due course.”
Khan added that he’s aiming to reintroduce a bill on voluntary assisted dying in the next term of Parliament.