1994
1994.1. Review of Guidelines for In-Vitro Fertilisation and Embryo Transfer
Submitted 19 January 1994 to the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Published: Victorian Humanist, March 1994: 4.
Main Points Made
The importance of confidentiality; all procedures to be confined to highly qualified centres; donor gametes should be acceptable; altruistic surrogacy should be legal.
The experimental component of reproductive technology is of particular importance with its unique opportunity to gain knowledge of early human development, transmission of genetic disorders, safe contraception, causes of miscarriages and other aspects of gestation.
Embryo research should be allowed till day 14 after conception as is the practice in the UK. We challenged the definition of parenthood based entirely on genetic criteria: humans not defined or valued by their genetic outfit.
––––––––––
1994.2. Mental Illness and Firearms Misuse
Submitted 6 February 1994 to the Ministry for Police and Emergency Services, New South Wales.
Published: Victorian Humanist, March 1994: 4.
Main Points Made
The mentally ill do not misuse firearms with greater frequency than the rest of the community, but rather less so.
Much gun misuse occurs as a result of poor control of aggression, anger or provocation. Such behaviour cannot be anticipated and does not classify as mental illness.
We echo the concerns of the National Committee on Violence (Institute of Criminology) of stigmatising the mentally ill as violent and dangerous.
A register of the mentally ill for the purpose of refusing a shooter’s licence must not be seen as the solution to all problems of gun misuse. Gun registration, stricter laws on gun and ammunition storage, elimination of semi-automatic, self-loading guns from urban areas are a greater and more urgent need. These measures must be uniform throughout the Commonwealth.
––––––––––
1994.3. The Media’s Code of Ethics
Submitted 13 March 1994 to the Ethics Review Committee of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Association (MEAA).
Published: Victorian Humanist, April 1994: 4.
Main points made
To resolve the conflict between the right to privacy and the public’s right to know, we suggested that the code of ethics should specify three categories:
(1) ordinary individuals with an absolute right to privacy;
(2) elected office holders, persons on public payrolls — with [a] right to their private lives but not in their public activities;
(3) listed companies which should be obliged to be fully accountable.
Shield-laws should be granted to reporters conditional on veracity of information given; and there should be exceptions where miscarriage of justice might occur.
Phone tapping, hidden cameras and other dishonest means of obtaining information should be prohibited.
Other comments referred to were: respect for private grief, reporting emergency situations, mandatory correction of errors, chequebook journalism, public access to media, “surveys” and the mechanism for dealing with complaints.
––––––––––
1994.4. Female Genital Mutilation
Submitted 21 March 1994 to the Family Law Council.
Published: Victorian Humanist, April 1994: 4.
Main points made
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a brutal practice aimed at dominance of women. It is a crime and it constitutes child abuse in Australia. Existing laws should also be changed to prevent a child, normally a resident here, from being taken outside Australia for the purpose of this procedure.
The legislation must be at the Federal Level. Mechanism dealing with child abuse under the Family Law Act 1975 can be utilised.
An intensive education campaign should be directed at migrants from countries where FGM is practiced. The community as a whole should be given information on this issue. The fallacy that it is a religious, specifically Islamic practice, must be discounted. Reconstructive surgery should be offered to victims to alleviate physical problems. Australia should participate in international forums (UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF, etc.) towards eliminating the practice globally.
From the Victorian Humanist, Aug. 1994: 4.
SUBMISSION FEEDBACK
The HSV has received a copy of the Report from the Family Law Council on Female Genital Mutilation (see V.H., April 1994: p. 4). The major recommendations and conclusions of the Report were very much in line with those submitted by the HSV.
––––––––––
1994.5. Restoring Full Employment (The Working Nation).
Submitted 5 June 1994 to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, June 1994: 3.
The Working Nation.
In our comments [to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet] on the White Paper on Unemployment [The Working Nation?], the main points were:
• The Job Compact designed to help 500,000 unemployed is a good start to solving a difficult problem. We see benefits of even temporary experience of work for the long-term unemployed.
• The training opportunities and support are of great value.
• Changes to CES practices were long overdue.
• We should aim to reduce unemployment below the targeted 5 per cent by measures such as: disincentives for overtime, incentives for part-time work, lower working week, large capital works e.g. in Interstate transport, recycling plants etc.
––––––––––
1994.6. Aged Care
Submitted 19 July 1994 to the Australian Law Reform Commission.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Aug. 1994: 3.
On Aged Care
HSV responses to [Australian Law Reform Commission] Discussion Paper 57:
• Support for the recommendations of the recently published report on care of the aged in nursing homes by Professor Gregory of the ANU.
• That consultation be made with the aged through their organisations and agencies of local government.
• The new legislation to include charters of rights and expectations of outcomes.
• Community visitors scheme and advocacy services to be regulated on a national basis.
• Privacy of personal information to be protected in law and to be a condition of funding.
• Service providers to be subject to better accreditation and accountability than is required at present.
• The new legislation to be uniform Federally, to be written in plain English, and contain a “sunset clause”or provisions for review.
• The need for education of the community and of the aged on the rights and the autonomy to choose options to live and die with dignity.
––––––––––
1994.7. The Civil Celebrants Program
Submitted 19 July 1994 to the Hon. M. H. Lavarch, Attorney-General, Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Aug.1994: 3.
Main recommendations of HSV submission
We urged that, in view of its value and importance in a secular society, the existing program should be reviewed with the following aims:
• A restatement of its underlying principles and ideology by the Attorney General
• The formulation of detailed guidelines of practice, criteria for selection of celebrants and a course of instructions, perhaps at CAE or TAFE.
• The fee system to be deregulated and advertising permitted to state type of services provided (rehearsals, choice and place of ceremony etc.). Conducting name giving, coming of age, funeral and other ceremonies should also be advertised.
• Client complaints should be assessed by an Ombudsman, and mechanisms to remove inadequate celebrants should be established.
––––––––––
1994.8. Tasmania’s Anti-Homosexual Laws
Submitted 17 August 1994 to the Attorney-General, Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Sept. 1994: 3.
The Decriminalisation of Homosexual Activity in Tasmania
To the Federal Attorney-General
Main Points made
We stated that both the Humanist Society of Victoria (HSV) and the Council of Australian Humanist Societies (CAHS) have previously lobbied for the decriminalisation of homosexual activity between consenting adults in private. The main grounds were that it is private, voluntary and victimless behaviour, and that the law and the government should not regulate intimate acts, and that it has a duty to protect victims of prejudice, discrimination and persecution.
Tasmania is the only State in Australia that retains and occasionally invokes its criminal code against homosexuals. This is the subject of condemnation by several international bodies such as Amnesty International [and] the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and it puts us in breach of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights to which Australia is a signatory. We see this as a grievous harm to Australia’s reputation among civilised nations.
We pointed to the general tolerance and acceptance of diversity as a mark of a mature society; to the many respected and admirable people who are gay or lesbian in their orientation; [and] that some scientific evidence suggests that such orientation may be genetically determined.
We urged that these Tasmanian criminal codes be annulled and that Equal Opportunity and Anti-Discrimination Acts include sexual orientation as a ground for complaint. (This is not available as redress in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.)
Archaic, brutal and oppressive laws must be repealed. Our statutes reflect our humaneness and degree of civilisation.
––––––––––
1994.9. Trials of RU486 [abortifacient drug]
Submitted 27 September 1994 to the Minister for Human Services and Health, Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Oct. 1994: 5.
The Abortifacient RU486
To Dr Carmen Lawrence, Federal Minister for Human Services and Health,
Main Points made
Australian women should be offered options in ways of terminating unwanted pregnancies. RU486 [mifepristone] as an alternative to surgical abortions has many advantages
The current trials taking place in Australia under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organisation (WHO) are a necessary measure to establish the lowest effective dose of this abortifacient.
Australia, as only one of several Western countries participating in this trialling, should maintain its international commitments and obligations.
We support any changes required to make the consent form for volunteers fully informative. But we express our concern at the various attempts to abolish the trials and to prevent RU486 from being available in this country.
––––––––––
1994.10. Medical Assistance to the Dying
Submitted 4 October 1994 to the Minister for Human Services and Health, Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Oct. 1994: 5.
Options for Dying with Dignity: Medical Assistance to the Dying
To Dr Carmen Lawrence, Federal Minister for Human Services and Health
Main points
We expressed our support for the proposed Medical Treatment (Assistance to the Dying) Bill.
We believe an option of assisted death should be available to competent people suffering unrelieved distress or pain in a terminal illness. The Bill carefully regulates conditions for such assistance and these eliminate the potential for abuse.
Surveys of the public reveal a high percentage support for such measures. Surveys of medical workers reveal that compassionate assistance is frequently practised; we urge that it be regulated and decriminalised.
––––––––––
1994.11. World Population Conference, Cairo
Submitted (18?) October 1994 to the Federal Minister for Human Services and Health (Dr Carmen Lawrence), Senator Nick Bolkus and Gordon Bilney.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Nov. 1994: 4.
SUBMISSION OCTOBER 1994
UN Population & Development Conference, Cairo
To Dr Carmen Lawrence, Senator Bolkus, Gordon Bilney
Main points
Sex education within the subject of human relationships should be a core subject from primary school level onwards.
Counselling and contraception should be available to sexually active teenagers in a sensitive and non-judgmental manner.
Abortion should be available on request, should be safe and affordable to avoid the dangers of backyard abortions.
The abortifacient RU486 should be available as an option in Australia.
The Government should fund and support research into the several types of male contraceptives currently under investigation.
When the goal of “every child being a wanted child” is achieved, the problem of overpopulation and the large number of neglected, maltreated and homeless children would be largely resolved.
––––––––––
1994.-. Boxing (Feedback on)
From the Victorian Humanist, Nov. 1994: 4
In a number of submissions in the past, on matters of health, prevention of permanent disability, community violence etc., we strongly opposed boxing as an accepted and subsidised sport. In this we were at one with medical authorities here and abroad.
A recent report, Boxing Injuries, by the National Health and Medical Research Council, based on “considerable new scientific and medical information”, renews calls to discourage boxing. Brain, eye, ear, facial bones and nerve, cervical spine and other injuries are reported in detail.
Here are a few selected quotes from the summary:.
“Boxing is unique among sporting activities in that victory is obtained by inflicting on the opponent such a measure of physical injury that he is unable to continue. . .”
“Chronic brain injury in boxers is associated with direct effects of mechanical trauma to the brain or indirect pathological features akin to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.”
“Education authorities should be requested to include information on the effects of boxing in health education curricula.”
Recommendations:
1. That professional boxing be prohibited.
2. That boxing and kick boxing or any other sport in which direct blows to the head are an object of the sport should be actively discouraged.
3. Where amateur boxing is allowed under strict regulation, education and research programs should be introduced with mandatory long-term follow-up of all boxers and informed consent be obtained from boxers, or, in the case of minors, from at least one parent or guardian.
––––––––––
[End of 1994]
