Former Prime Minister The Hon Paul Keating is profoundly right on euthanasia (“Don’t do it”, 19 October 2017).

There is no point in introducing laws to legalise being “put to sleep”.  It’s already happening in our hospitals, palliative care institutions, and nursing homes, without any laws.

Euthanasia is legalizing murder.  Autopsy would be mandatory legislative requirement if this bill passes.

How and why is it that the elderly are classed as a “nuisance” when they become frail?  Has a generation of people been raised to not care for their loved one’s final years?  Looking after our families is part of our life cycle and common decency.

Who does the “selling” to convince the doctor that their loved one’s time is up?  Their family? Someone eyeing the patient’s assets?

Watch out, you could be next.

Relying on medical opinions for who’s not going to outlive 12 months is fraught with dangerous precedents.  Everyday medical opinions for hire are before our courts and they are just opinions, not science.

Science and opinion are two different things; science is the father of knowledge but opinion breeds ignorance.

BEWARE.  It will not be safe to give doctors a licence to kill until it can be guaranteed that medical practitioners will never make mistakes.

It is disconcerting to see the effort politicians are putting in to legalise ending people’s lives but couldn’t care less about thousands of patients being killed by their medical treatment each day.

Lorraine Long

Medical Error Action Group