Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper says his fellow MPs should not allow their religious beliefs to block euthanasia legislation supported by the community.
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Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich released a draft of proposed euthanasia laws on Monday, almost two years after an assisted dying bill failed by one vote in the NSW upper house.
Mr Piper, one of the bill's co-sponsors and co-authors, said numerous surveys showed 80 per cent of the community backed voluntary assisted dying laws.
"While I've been part of previous attempts to introduce these laws, they have sadly failed because, I believe, a number of parliamentary leaders have allowed their religious beliefs to outweigh the wishes of the vast majority in their communities," he said.
"It is not right, in my mind, that one's religious beliefs play such a defining role in the lives of others, but I would hasten to add that I've spoken to many people of various religious faiths who support this bill."
He said support for euthanasia was "even higher" in Lake Macquarie and most other parts of the Hunter.
"With assisted dying laws now passed by Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, NSW is sadly lagging in this reform.
"This cannot be ignored any longer.
"As a mature and educated society, I believe we should be able to accept the right of a terminally ill person to determine the time of their own death when they, with sound mind, choose to do so because their pain and quality of life is no longer bearable to them."
The Hunter's Labor MPs support voluntary assisted dying legislation, though some are waiting to see the details of the new bill before publicly backing it.
Labor's Tim Crakanthorp and Jodie Harrison will co-sponsor the bill when it is tabled next month.
"For me, having watched people I love experience a painful and protracted death, I know it is the right thing to do," Mr Crakanthorp said.
He did not know if his departed friends and family would have used the law, but "they never had the choice".
"This is the crux of this issue, the choice to hang on or to let go, and the choice of how you spend the end of your life," he said.
Ms Harrison had heard from many people "having terrible experiences".
"I particularly remember one woman who had motor neurone disease, and she passed away before the last voluntary assisted dying bill came before the Legislative Council," she said.
"Her pain could not be fixed with palliative care, and I got a letter from her husband after she died with the grief and the terrible experience that she'd been though. That really pulled at my heart strings."
The legislation says only adults diagnosed with a terminal illness that will cause death within six months, or 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions, can access voluntary assisted dying.
Two experienced doctors will need to independently come to the conclusion that the patient is acting voluntarily and without pressure.
Doctors will not be obliged to participate in assisted dying against their wishes.
Labor's Kate Washington, Yasmin Catley and Jenny Aitchison said they supported assisted dying laws in principle and would review the fine print before an expected debate in September.
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery said she wholeheartedly supported voluntary assisted dying laws.
"It is not a matter of a choice between life and death but a choice for those who are going to die, for whom death is inevitable and imminent, but who can still exercise the autonomy that is at the heart of what it is to be human: the exercise of free will," she said.
"I want to be part of a compassionate community that affords freedom of choice to people at their end of life."
Ms Aitchison and Ms Washington had not had a chance to examine the proposal but said surveys in 2019 showed their electorates were "overwhelmingly in favour" of the previous bill.
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said he "absolutely" supported voluntary assisted dying laws, and the Nationals' Upper Hunter MP, Dave Layzell, said he was "still discussing the principle with the community" and was yet to see the bill.
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