What is wrong with yous Australians. Why do you want to knock youselves off? You have to get tough. What is wrong with vomiting your own faeces while you're snatching your last breaths? A bit of screaming in agony because the analgaesics don't work will do you good. A bit of self discipline is what is needed here. A good smack on the bottom for those gerries who complain. Yous wants it easy - well it's not. life was meant to be violent. What is wrong with a bit of suffering. Put backbone into you if you have any left after the surgeons have finished. Just because you are hallucinating doesn't mean you can take off for heaven. You'll get plenty of that after you are dead. In the meantime you are needed in the factories. new technology means you can still sit at your desk with your saline drip bolted to your head. New plastic wrap will stop your bowels falling out and a champagn cork fitted to your .... mouth can stop you screaming all the time. There's also the converted water beds where you can float with no bones like jelly fish to get an extra five years of hell. Now buck up chaps and get on with it the pharmaceutical industry needs you.
Barfenzie

"THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY NEEDS YOU"

Thanks to barfenzie everything is so transparent.

I shall ignore my 80-plus mother's final request and let her rot in her own vomit - why should she get to die with dignity? Who does this woman who has worked all her life, raised 2 kids, paid taxes, nursed my alcoholic father think she is anyway?

She should die slowly and painfully just like Johnny Howard no doubt will when he is prone on his death bed.

The central issue here is the continuing eroding of citizens rights.This legislation is the latest blow in the ongoing campaign against a persons right to end their life.
Marshall Perron, a Country Liberal Chief Minister of the Northern Territory,introduced legislation into the Northern Territory as Rights of the Terminally ill which permitted four people to end their suffering with dignity before The Andrews bill vetoed the N.T.law despite the wishes of the N.T.to recognise the need.
Doctor Phillip Nietzke, a man of great compassion who understands the need for terminally ill people to die with dignity, has been forced to move his operation to New Zealand where he can continue his advisory service because of this most recent law.
The rationale for this new law is to ban discussion and access to information from teenagers who might be contemplating suicide.
In real life,a person wishing to end their life for whatever reason manages to find a way. This is a separate issue. Friends of mine who have made the decision to end their lives have done so ....Four by shooting; Two have hung themselves and One used overdosing . To my knowledge they didn't discuss their intentions with anybody. Only one was suffering from a terminal illness that I know of.
What is the next freedom this government intends to remove........

I totally agree with maracas, most people are missing the point as to what is objectionable about this legislation. I have no plans to top myself, but I'm sick of the current Government (often with opposition support) infringing on Australians' basic freedoms. Even in the conservative United States, legislation such as this would be greatly opposed as the attack on freedom of speech that it is.

I do not wish to enter into deep discussions on the morality issue here but just to say one point that euthanasia/ mercy killing is widely used by our medicos daily. I don’t see people objecting to that. A recent example is Kerry Packer.

BUT is it just me or hasn't anybody questioned HOW is the government going to find out (let alone legislate) what we do on the internet?

Is Big Brother so paranoia now that they have to tap all our electronic devices?

Having watched a dear relative die a slow terrible death I am going to make sure I do not go the same way.
I doubt that any of the 'right to life' busybodies ever watched someone they love lose everything and everyone they loved in a terrible manner. They could never be so sanctimoniously merciless if they did.
You have a right to dictate how your own life and death is managed, you do not have the right to manage anyone else.
But when all hope has gone and all that is left is pain and indignity, you should have the right to say,"Enough!"