Family First NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has welcomed the bill introduced by Liberal MLC Susan Carter to restore protections for faith-based aged-care facilities from being forced to facilitate euthanasia on their premises.
“New South Wales should never compel faith-based aged-care homes to open their doors to what the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, rightly calls ‘kill teams’,” Mr Shelton said.
“Family First will be closely examining MP’s voting records on issues of life and human dignity when deciding preference recommendations to voters at the up-coming election.
“Since euthanasia was legalised less than two years ago, 398 people have already died in just the first seven months of the scheme’s operation. The number will only have grown. Yet our law goes further than any other state in coercing religious facilities to participate in this culture of death. Even Victoria does not force Catholic or other faith-based homes to permit euthanasia on site.”
Mr Shelton said Family First had consistently opposed euthanasia because it undermines the dignity of life and exposes vulnerable elderly people to subtle and overt pressures to end their lives.
“Every human life matters — regardless of age, disability, or despair. The answer to suffering is better care, not killing,” he said.
“New South Wales should follow Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania, which all allow conscientious protection for religious facilities. It is unconscionable that our state forces people of faith to violate their deepest convictions in the place where people should feel safest.”
Mr Shelton urged all members of the NSW Legislative Council to support Ms Carter’s bill when it comes to debate.
He said the totalitarianism built into so much of the radical left’s social policy needed to be resisted.
“Free societies don’t force people to kill or ban prayer, as NSW currently does. The public needs to wake up to what is actually going on in our Parliaments.
“Family First stands with the Archbishop, with faith-based providers, and with every elderly resident who deserves to live out their final days in peace and dignity — not under the shadow of a state-sanctioned death regime.”
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