Dear Editor,
In response to, "Denton urges WA doctors to back euthanasia laws", (News, Page 5, 18.9.2018) this question can only be rightly resolved as it relates to Natural Law.
Natural Law determines every human life to be inviolable, as we can readily appreciate that no-one may justly offend against the integral well-being of another person, or his/her possessions. The prime possession of every person is his/her life, from the moment their life is conceived, until its natural end, (It may never, rightly, be considered to be the possession of another, as is the case in the practices of abortion and IVF.)
So, every singular life is sacrosanct and may not ever, justly, have its natural integrity deliberately compromised for any reason, not by self or by others.
Voluntary euthanasia involves the call of a person to other/s for assistance, and complicity, in their act of terminal self-violation. In simple terms, regardless of the intention, the nature of the act is ever, self-murder-suicide.
The principle applies: No intrinsically evil act - which includes murder, in all of its forms - may ever be done to achieve a desirable good. And, this principle totally accords with the dictate of the Natural Law. Every life is sacrosanct, and may not, for any reason, be deliberately violated.
A society which has its 'laws' fly in the face of the Natural Laws, shall never serve the true well-being of its citizens.
To legislate truly, governments need ensure every proposed law is in faithful accord with the Natural Laws.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Mitter
19th September 2018
PS - Andrew Denton's position is compelling and is given full page 5 prominence. But, as compelling as it might be, his case involves the sacrificing of inviolable moral principles and the time-honoured medical profession's Hippocratic Oath which forbids involvement in the deliberate taking of a life? The profession has moral license only to do everything possible to alleviate pain and suffering, never to deliberately act to terminate a life. To act to deliberately terminate a life is to abandon every moral principle.