夏水流萤7. Three Committees established by English-speaking legislatures to consider proposals to legalize euthanasia have recommended that it not be legalized. 1994-95 saw the publication of Reports of Committees established by the House of Lords of the UK Parliament, by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, and by the Senate of the Canadian Parliament. All these Committees were composed of people with different views on the intrinsic morality of euthanasia, yet they were clear in opposing its legalization. For example, the House of Lords' Select Committee had among its members many who were on record as advocates of euthanasia. And yet after a year of hearing and reading an extensive body of evidence and debating the issues among themselves, they decided unanimously to recommend that euthanasia should not be legalized.
There is much in all three Reports that is worthy of the attention of the Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee of the Senate of the Australian Federal Parliament. Let the following quotation from the House of Lords' Select Committee Report stand as the epitome of the collective wisdom of these Committees:
'[S]ociety's prohibition of intentional killing ...is the cornerstone of law and social relationships. It protects each of us impartially, embodying the belief that all are equal.
