In Victoria, the Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Review Board published their sixth report about the VAD law that is in force since 2019. It is the first annual report – earlier reports contained only 6 months.
Numbers about the period June 2019 (when the Act commenced) until 30 June 2022:
- 1425 people were assessed for eligibility to access voluntary assisted dying
- 1035 permits were issued
- 604 permit holders died from taking the prescribed substance
- 326 trained medical practitioners are now registered in the portal to support voluntary assisted dying.
Who is accessing voluntary assisted dying?
- The median age of applicants was 73 years, and half of all applicants were aged 65-81 years.
- Just over half of the applicants were male (54 per cent male, 46 per cent female)
- Over one third (37 per cent) of applicants lived in regional Victoria, despite only 22 per cent of the Victorian population living in regional areas
- 81 percent of applicants were accessing palliative care at the time of requesting voluntary assisted dying
- 17 per cent had a non-malignant diagnosis, most commonly a neurodegenerative disease
You can read the report below:
Australia