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Victorian Government to Vote on Medically Assisted Suicide, Premier Announces

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has announced his government will introduce a bill to legalise medically assisted suicide in 2017.

In a video published to his Facebook page, Andrews stated the potential bill was intended to launch legislation that would be guided “not by ideologues or advocates but by an advisory panel of independent experts in the law, health, patient rights and palliative care.”

The premier touched on his own story, acknowledging his father’s struggle with terminal cancer, but said it was “not the only story.”

“In a debate like this, everyone’s voices, everyone’s story, needs to be heard and the debate needs to be respectful,” he says in the footage.

“Whichever side of the debate you are on, it’s still a fact that hundreds of sick people in Victoria take their own lives every year in desperately sad circumstances. We at least owe it to these people and their families to acknowledge their suffering and to try and feel their pain and make a real decision – anything else is failing to act.” Credit: Facebook/Daniel Andrews via Storyful