The legal status of voluntary euthanasia should be considered by a Senate committee inquiring into palliative care in Australia, according to the Health Care Consumers Association of the ACT.
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The group has also used a submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee to renew calls for a second, ''secular'' hospice to be built in Canberra to complement the Clare Holland House hospice.
The Senate committee has made it clear it is not conducting an inquiry into euthanasia.
''Submissions that solely address euthanasia, rather than the terms of reference will not be accepted and published,'' the inquiry's website warns.
But the Health Care Consumers used the final paragraphs of a broader submission to argue that voluntary euthanasia should be considered by the inquiry.
''Consideration of the subject is required if there is a consumer-centred palliative care strategy. It is not mentioned in the terms of reference but voluntary euthanasia is supported by a majority of Australians as many polls show,'' the association's Kerry Snell wrote.
''Also the current medical practice of increasing pain medication as a palliative care measure needs to be addressed. This increased medication often leads to an earlier death. This practice needs to be addressed openly in a palliative care strategy.''
The association said it had undertaken member and community consultations in 2009 when the ACT government considered selling Clare Holland House to the hospice's operators, Little Company of Mary Health Care.
''A strong view emerged that Canberra needed a second, secular hospice,'' the submission said. ''A concern was expressed that the only hospice in the ACT is run by a religious organisation, which has moral and spiritual principles which, for some consumers and their families, felt were inappropriate to their needs.
''We need to consider those consumers with conflicting spiritual/religious beliefs, different cultural backgrounds (eg, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Australians), and those who may have had negative experiences with religious organisations in their past (eg, Forgotten Australians).''
The submission also said a shortage of general practitioners and inadequate staffing levels in aged-care homes was leading to palliative care patients being transferred to hospitals against their wishes and the wishes of their families.
It was unclear if the introduction by the ACT government of an aged-care mobile GP locum service would lead to a reduction in resident transfers to hospital and an increase in the safe and effective provision of palliative care, the submission said.
In a separate submission, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians called for greater funding and availability of palliative care services which met the needs and desires of patients, including in non-hospital settings.
Cancer Voices NSW called for federal government palliative care funding to be quarantined to palliative care services.
In 1997, the federal parliament overturned a Northern Territory law which permitted voluntary euthanasia. The federal parliament also stripped the legislative assemblies of the ACT and Norfolk Island of the authority to legislate for euthanasia.