Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP of Sydney has issued a grave warning that Australia is increasingly embracing what Saint John Paul II described in Evangelium vitae as the “culture of death.” Speaking at the annual Nicholas Tonti-Filippini Lecture in Melbourne, during the “Truth and Integrity in Medicine” conference organized by the Catholic Medical Association of Australia, Fisher condemned the nation’s growing acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
He recalled that when Victoria became the first Australian state to legalize assisted suicide in 2017, lawmakers assured citizens that it would be “the most conservative model in the world,” surrounded by firm safeguards. However, he noted, these supposed protections are now being steadily dismantled. The most recent amendment removes the ban on doctors initiating discussions about euthanasia with patients — a change Fisher called “a fundamental shift in attitudes toward life and suffering.”
The Archbishop warned that assisted suicide and euthanasia are now becoming normalized as “ordinary ways of dying,” while conscience rights for medical professionals are increasingly ignored. He pointed out that euthanasia currently accounts for up to 1.6 percent of all deaths in Australia. Citing Saint John Paul II, Fisher said the Polish pope’s diagnosis of a “culture of death” was not only descriptive but prophetic. “We are witnessing an ideology that presents killing as compassion,” Fisher said, urging Australians to resist this moral decline and rediscover the sacred value of every human life.