ACT Right to Life Association MEDIA RELEASE

Whitecross proposes radical euthanasia policies

President of the ACT Right to Life Association, Jeremy Stuparich, today warned the ACT Labor Party that they stood little chance of being returned to government in the ACT if they supported radical social policies like voluntary euthanasia. ACT opposition leader Andrew Whitecross MLA today addressed a small group of Voluntary Euthanasia Society members at their Annual General Meeting.

Mr Stuparich expressed concern that Mr Whitecross had speculated about broadening the scope of euthanasia legislation to people who were not terminally ill. "Andrew Whitecross dismissed the validity of the ‘slippery slope’ argument while a moment before he had raised the possibility of euthanasia for people who are not in a ‘terminal phase of a terminal illness’ [as Michael Moore MLA’s legislation defines it] and people who are not terminally ill at all", said Mr Stuparich.

"The ACT Labor Party lost government in 1995 partly because they had alienated significant groups in the ACT community with their support for things like euthanasia", Mr Stuparich said. "The ALP needs to regroup with moderate policies which don’t discourage people from voting for them."

Mr Whitecross also revealed that the ACT ALP conference next month will debate and have a conscience vote on euthanasia, some five years after voluntary euthanasia was put in the ACT ALP’s policy.

Issued: 26 May 1996

Contact: Jeremy Stuparich, president of the ACT Right to Life Association.

|ABORTION||ABOUT US||EUTHANASIA||NEWS||REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY||SEARCH||HOME|