What motivated the ‘cruel’ assisted dying bill?

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Dear Editor,
A varied collection of New South Wales' Legislative Council members wanted to allow religious aged-care providers to force dying residents from their homes if they chose to access voluntary assisted dying (‘‘Cruel beyond belief’: The legislative push upsetting expert doctor’, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 November 2025).
What was motivating these politicians? Certainly not the wishes of those residents affected. And not the doctors. The eminent NSW Senior of the Year in 2024, Dr John Ward, called the bill “cruel beyond belief”. Also, not the wishes of the NSW electorate, whose representatives voted against this idea when the initial voluntary assisted dying bill was passed into law.
NSW is supposed to be a secular state. Minority views based on religious dogma should not be countenanced.
Richard Mills
 
Dawkins on the wrong side of trans argument
Dear Editor,
Richard Dawkins is a brilliant leading light in many fields. His books, especially, are full of sharp yet sweeping and well-supported insights. This makes it that much more surprising and disappointing that he can get one contentious claim so wrong – and one advanced also by conservative, religious, and Right-wing proponents, and which is also related to his own specialty of evolutionary biology.
He has alleged, without adequate empirical support (and...