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Turns out from January 7th, we won't be able to discuss Euthanasia on the internet or on the phone, so I may as well get this out of the way.

EUTHANISE YOURSELVES NOW
A suicide-inciting article by Tommy

Unless we're lucky and die an instant death at the hands of a vehicle, a bullet or Chuck Norris, chances are we're going to go through insane amounts of pain before we die. Diseases like cancer eat away at your body until there is nothing left. To watch a family member go through such pain is pretty much the worst thing imaginable. To go through the pain yourself is, I imagine, even worse.

Some people believe this pain is a part of life, that voluntary euthanasia is a cop-out, just another name for suicide. Let me make it clear, I'm not advocating suicide. To take your life because you're in a financial mess, or because your girlfriend left you for Chuck Norris, is nothing more than a cop-out. But if you're in the latter stages of your life, you should be allowed to make a decision to peacefully die on your own terms. Obviously, there are complications when someone terminally ill cannot make such a decision, as shown by the 1-month hullaballoo over Terry Schiavo in the U.S earlier this year, but that's another blog all together.

I'll let Attorney-General and Darth Sidious look-a-like Phillip Ruddock sum up the contents of the bill: (link is a .pdf file)

“…the Bill introduces important new measures that will criminalise the use of the internet to encourage others to take their own lives. The Bill will make it an offence to use a carriage service, including the internet, to access, transmit, or make available material that counsels or incites suicide."

Not from a Jed-iiiiiiiiiii

Sounds cool, right? The Federal Government, and Labor who supported the bill's passage through the Houses, claim they are merely protecting vulnerable individiuals from those on the internet with a 'destructive intent'. And, in some way, they are. This law makes it illegal for people to make suicide pacts on the internet, or engage in suicide cults in chat rooms like those seen in Japan.

But then you look at the bill a bit further. Aside from the idiocy of trying to censor the internet, the largest global medium in the history of the world, the bill is full of contradictions. From January 7, it may be illegal to provide information about euthanasia over the phone and e-mail, but not in person. It may also be illegal for the Euthanasia Society of NSW to campaign for the introduction of voluntary euthanasia legislation in state parliament, unless they restrict their campaign to non-electronic media!

The architect of the bill

Senator Grieg from the Australian Democraps spoke of a book called 'The Final Exit' by Derek Humphrey, a guide book designed to show the terminally ill how to go about ending their lives peacefully, complete with drug dosages, tips on how to find the right care and legal and psychological advice. Grieg said that uploading or e-mailing passages of this book on the internet would constitute a crime, yet this is a book freely available in book stores and libraries. Apparently reading how to off yourself peacefully in html is somehow more dangerous than reading it in print. Thank you, Federal Government, for protecting us from the evil binary code.

If the major parties were more concerned with the impact of suicide, they would spend the money and time wasted generating and implementing this piece of shit, free speech-restricting, contradictory and useless bill, and use it funding programs aimed at reducing depression among young adults. Fix the hundreds of HSC and VCE students who kill themselves every few years before you worry about passing a bill designed to shore up your support from right-to-life pressure groups and the Religious right.

And just to make sure I'm arrested by Ruddock's clone troopers come January 7th

Jumping off cliffs is fun