In Victoria, the Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Review Board published their third report about the VAD law that is in force since 2019. You can find the report below:
This report covers the second six-month period (January-June 2020) of Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Act and shows a steady increase in the number of people requesting access to voluntary assisted dying. The report is the follow up of the second report, that we published last February.
In summary, this six-month report shows:
- access to voluntary assisted dying is growing – eligible applications increased by 50 per cent from the first six months
- more doctors are on board to help – the number of medical practitioners trained and registered in the portal increased by 30 per cent from the first six months
- access issues in regional Victoria are easing – 38 per cent of applications were from people living in regional Victoria, and 37 per cent of trained and registered medical practitioners are from outside metropolitan Melbourne. However, there is still a need for more specialists in regional areas
- compliance with the Act remains high – one application was deemed non-compliant with the law. This was due to an issue in the paperwork; it was not related to the eligibility of the applicant.
Australia