After 10 hours of gruelling and emotionally-charged debate, the latest euthanasia and assisted suicide bill in Tasmania was defeated 13 votes to 11 in the state parliament’s lower house on the evening of Thursday, October 17. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2013 had been foreshadowed for more than two years. It had been the subject of a consultation (of sorts) in March this year, and then suddenly introduced on the last day of the winter sitting, providing only a fortnight’s effec…
