Dying with Dignity Victoria publish their latest newsletter
October 2024 can be accessed here
Victoria was the first Australian state to have a Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) law. The bill was approved in 2017 and came into effect in June 2019.
Since that moment to the last day of 2020:
(Source: VADRB_Report of operations 2020)
The VAD law with its 68 safeguards is known as the most safe and conservative VAD law in the world. This brought politicians to introduce an improvement bill in Parliament. Also doctors face problems with the accessibility of the law. While legislative change may resolve some of these concerns, most can be ameliorated by improving the processes and systems.
To apply for VAD, the following criteria must be met:
Applicants must be:
The disease must be:
The legislation includes 68 “safeguards”, including new criminal offences to protect vulnerable people from abuse and coercion and a special board to review all cases. The laws also have safeguards to prevent terminally ill people being pressured into a decision:
If these requirements are met, the patient will be able to obtain a lethal drug within 10 days of asking to die, following a three-step request process involving two independent medical assessments. The patient must administer the drug themselves, but a doctor could deliver the lethal dose in rare cases (when the patient is physically unable to administer the drug by himself).
Despite concerns about the health of MPs and staff working extreme hours, the Parliament debated more than 24 hours. There was a standoff over whether to adjourn parliament to allow MPs to rest, with the supporters unwilling to do so as they wanted the bill to pass. At some point the debate was however postponed when Labor MP Daniel Mulino collapsed and was taken away in an ambulance.
The Government’s leader in the Upper House, Gavin Jennings, had accused opponents of trying to string out debate “far beyond the terms of reasonable argument” to try to delay the bill’s passage through the Parliament. Opponents used the lengthy debate to challenge different elements of the bill, including access to the drug and what type of drug would be used for the lethal dose — something the Government is yet to reveal.
PO Box 743
Kew, VIC
3101, Australia
Phone: 0491 718 632
dwdv@dwdv.org.au
Website: Dying With Dignity Victoria
Villa 1, Hampton Mews, 4 Wills Place, Mittagong, NSW Australia 2575
tel + 61 2 4872 1448
christiansforve@westnet.com.au
www.christiansforve.org.au Information Leaflet
October 2024 can be accessed here
Dying with Dignity Victoria published its newsletter Update # 204 (July 2024). Read it below:
Our Young Ambassadors are young people from across Australia who are passionate about improving access and quality of end-of-life choices,
Dying with Dignity Victoria published its newsletter Update # 202 (Dec 2023). Read it below:
Dying with Dignity Victoria published its newsletter Update # 201 (Sept 2023). Read it below:
Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board finds that the number of deaths from people accessing VAD rose by 11%.