This article is republished from National Review with the permission of the author.

When assisted suicide is first proposed for legalization, we are assured by death activists that strict guidelines will protect against abuse. But they don’t mean it. Once the laws pass, the supposed protections — which are always flaccid to begin with — are soon redefined by activists and the media as “barriers,” et voila, the laws are soon loosened. It’s all a con, but people seem to fall for it every time.

Image Credit: Felipe Caparrós - Adobe Stock

This pattern can be seen vividly playing out in Victoria, Australia. The state was the first in that country to legalize assisted suicide, and now the government is making more people eligible for legally hastened death. From the premier’s announcement:

The new legislation will remove unnecessary barriers to accessing VAD, improve clarity for practitioners, strengthen safety measures and make the system fairer and more compassionate.

See what I mean? “Strengthen safety,” (!!!) and “fairer and more compassionate,” really just means more people can become dead much sooner.

Here are some of the particulars:

There are 13 proposed amendments to the legislation, with proposed key changes to include:

• Removing the ‘gag clause’ so that registered health practitioners are allowed to raise VAD with their patients during discussion about end of life options

Doctors bringing up assisted suicide. Can you imagine anything more destructive of hope?

• Requiring registered health practitioners who conscientiously object to provide minimum information.

Doctors are often promised they can opt out. But then, the attacks on medical conscience begin.

• Extending the prognosis requirement (life expectancy limit for eligibility) from six months to 12 months.

Doctors often can’t accurately know who will die within six months. Having a one-year window just opens the door to more people to kill themselves who might not have died of their condition at all.

• For people with neurodegenerative diseases (like motor neurone disease), they’ll no longer need a third prognosis if their expected lifespan is between six and 12 months.

The second and third opinions are often provided by doctors recommended by euthanasia organizations.

• Introducing a new administering practitioner role to expand the workforce able to support VAD.

I suspect this means nurse practitioners will be able to participate in hastened death — as is allowed in other jurisdictions, including some here in the U.S. — because there can never be enough assisted suicide.

The premier excuses his loosening of eligibility requirements and other aspects of the law by claiming the changes are necessary to catch up with the slacker assisted-suicide laws in other Australian states. Talk about a race to the bottom!

The ultimate destination for all of this will be the creation of a fundamental right to be made dead, regardless of the reason, i.e., death on demand. Indeed, German and Estonian courts have already created a fundamental right to commit suicide and receive assistance in that act for whatever reason, or, for that matter, no reason at all.

In this, I am reminded of the Paul Simon lyrics:

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away.