Parramatta's Bishop Anthony Fisher said euthanasia thinking can spread virally, not just between people but also within the conscience of a person.The Catholic Weekly reports him saying: "We begin by thinking that just a little bit of medical killing might be OK – for people in extreme pain who are terminally ill, for instance."
"We then extend it to people who are very sick, but not terminally ill. Then to people who aren't really sick, but are 'tired of life'. Then to people (first children, the disabled and the unconscious) who haven't even asked for euthanasia."
The Australian newspaper reported one in three GPs in major cities believe people older than 70 who feel "tired of life" should have the right to professional help in ending it, according to a poll conducted for Dr Philip Nitschke's Exit International.
"As the recent survey shows, the very idea of it also spreads like wildfire once you've agreed to it in 'just for a few hard cases'," he said.
"Even if the recent survey was poorly worded and answered by people unaware of how their answers might be used, it is a salutary lesson.
"Once we allow that our doctors might decide that some people are better off dead and that they might bring that about; once we admit that our patients might decide that they've 'had enough' and can ask their healthcarers to hurry up their deaths; then we are already well down a path to death as a solution to a growing range of problems."
SIC: CTH/AUS