Moves by Labor, Liberal, Libertarian and Greens politicians to allow doctors to suggest to vulnerable patients that they be allowed to kill them are further evidence of the slippery slope that is euthanasia.

The Labor-initiated amendments for the Victorian Parliament are likely to pass with the votes of pro-euthanasia Liberals.

Victoria was the first Australian state to legalise euthanasia after it was sold to the public on the basis that a patient of sound mind would have to repeatedly ask for it before they could be considered eligible.

Because it is easy for people to be manipulated into being killed, doctors and relatives have been banned from suggesting euthanasia to an elderly or sick person.

But since 2017, other states have implemented euthanasia with looser rules and Victoria now wants to lower the bar.

Euthanasia is a deeply emotive issue and sadly enjoys public support largely, Family First contends, because of a superficial public debate.

Family First opposes euthanasia because human life is sacred and modern palliative care is able to provide a dignified death to the overwhelming majority of terminally ill people.

If people are dying in pain and discomfort, it is generally the result of sub-optimal palliative care, and gold-plating palliative care is where government focus should be.

The incentive to clear hospital beds in an over-stretched health system is too great for even the most ethical of doctors.

Sadly the dynamics in many families are such that if there is an inheritance in the offing, the suggestion of euthanasia may be a way of fast-tracking things.

Euthanasia changes the doctor-patient relationship from caring to killing.

Allowing doctors to suggest euthanasia simply puts grease on an already slippery slope.