Should Australia allow dementia sufferers to access voluntary euthanasia? [Video]

A world-leading philosopher is urging that Australia change the law to allow people suffering dementia access to voluntary euthanasia.

He says assisted dying should be legal provided the patient has requested it while intellectually capable, and that the refusal to permit it is a “weakness” in the legislation.

In an interview on my podcast Neil Mitchell asks Why? Professor Peter Singer, a groundbreaking campaigner for animal rights, has also raised the possibility of medical experimentation on people who are brain dead and reasserted his belief that parents should have the right to take the life of their seriously disabled child.

But it is the dementia issue that will resonate because it touches more than two million lives in this country, including carers and families.

Dementia is already the second largest killer of Australians and growing.

It is estimated one person in the world is diagnosed every three seconds.

There are more than 55 million cases around the world and in …