PROPOSED assisted dying laws could be blocked in the NSW upper house with a vote expected to come down to just one or two MPs.
The opening debate on the Draft Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill started with many MPs tearing up as they made their pleas for and against the controversial changes in the Legislative Council.
Whether the proposed legislation even makes it to the lower house depends on the vote expected on Thursday night.
“It’s going to be very, very close,†Labor MP Penny Sharpe told AAP. “I think it will be between one or two votes.â€
If passed in the upper house the bill will likely founder in the Legislative Assembly where both Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Opposition Leader Luke Foley will oppose it.
The private members bill, introduced in September by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, would provide patients 25 years or older, whose deaths are imminent and are in severe pain, a choice to end their lives.
Two doctors and a psychiatrist or psychologist would also need to determine whether they’re fit to do so.
Those against the bill cite the need for better palliative care and raise concerns about future amendments potentially removing current safeguards.
“Rather than creating a perceived need for euthanasia, we should be emphasising the advances in medicine and technology that help people,†Labor health spokesman Walt Secord told parliament on Thursday.
Supporters insist the bill would give terminally ill patients or those in excruciating pain the option to choose how they die.
“We give people the right to choose to extend their life — why do we not give them the option to choose to end their lives in a time of their choosing surrounded by people they love and with the dignity they deserve?†Nationals MP Bronwyn Taylor said.
Outside parliament on Thursday morning, supporters and opponents rallied in the hope of influencing MPs.
Sheena Goodwin, 68, spoke of the agony she’s witnessed as a registered nurse, given palliative care is not always available.
But 73-year-old Martin Burrows, from northwest Sydney, says the final few weeks he and his children spent with his wife as she died of cancer were precious. He argued there must be a better way to deal with painful deaths than “a bill for suicideâ€.