CATH NEWS REPORT: Euthanasia is contrary to the ideals of justice and charity and would corrupt society, Bishop Anthony Fisher warned the legal fraternity who gathered for the 81st annual Red Mass in Sydney, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
''Even were such a proposal to gain a parliamentary majority this would not make it right,'' he said.Bishop Fisher, of Parramatta, said during the Mass held at St Mary's Cathedral yesterday to mark the start of the legal year, that ''state-sanctioned killing'' undermined the legitimacy of the state and its criminal law.
''Bad laws are mostly made by bad people and in turn make people bad.''
Bishop Fisher called on those gathered - including NSW Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, the shadow attorney-general, Greg Smith, and leading judges and barristers - to resist efforts to legalise voluntary euthanasia.
Bishop Fisher, a former lawyer, said the proposed legislation was ''the killing of those who suffer by those who are comfortable, of the vulnerable by the powerful, of the sick by those professed to heal them''.
In NSW the Greens intend to introduce a private member's bill in support of legalising euthanasia after the election in March.
A NSW Greens MP, Cate Faehrmann, criticised the bishop's comments, saying it was an example of an ''out-of-touch commentator driven by out-of-touch ideology''.
''The vast majority of people support voluntary euthanasia as long as it's with appropriate safeguards, which is what the legislation I am proposing is about.''
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