Voluntary euthanasia should be available to children: civil libertarians

Children as young as 12 should be able to choose to end their own lives, with civil libertarians citing European laws as a model that could be replicated in Queensland.

A Queensland inquiry, led by a parliamentary committee, is examining aged care, palliative care and voluntary euthanasia.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope says voluntary euthanasia should also be available for children, with safeguards.Credit: Michelle Smith, file image

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said the views of mature minors about voluntary assisted dying (VAD) should be respected.

"We would define such a mature minor as a child over 12 years of age who ... has a sufficient understanding and intelligence to enable him or her to understand fully what is proposed," he said.

"However, we do recognise that children are entitled to extra protection when making their decision."

Mr Cope said children should be assessed by an independent psychiatrist before their request to die was authorised.

"Secondly, at least one of the independent medical practitioners should have specific qualifications and experience in dealing with children," he said.

"Thirdly, in the case of children a request for VAD should not be based solely on an underlying psychiatric condition."

Mr Cope said the suggestion was based on laws in Europe, where 13 minors had accessed voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands since 2002 and three in Belgium since 2014.

More generally on the issue of euthanasia, Mr Cope said protections should include making it a criminal offence to pressure a patient to die, the patient must be competent when the decision was made and a third medical opinion should be obtained from a psychiatrist in a case not involving a terminal illness.

It should be available when a person had an incurable disease, illness or medical condition which was advanced and would cause death within six months - 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions - or if the patient's suffering was unbearable, with no prospect of improvement, he said.

Mr Cope said people should have control over how and when they died, and they should be able to ask for help from medical practitioners.

"Having regard to the unbearable pain and suffering of those with terminal or incurable illnesses, a well-informed person could not reasonable reject VAD so long as it was only permitted in circumstances where all reasonable steps had been taken to protect the interests of the vulnerable," he said.

Mr Cope said people who argued allowing euthanasia would set in motion a "slippery slope" which would allow it to be extended to unacceptable practices ignored the fact it was already a reality today.

"However, at present, it is conducted without regulation," he said.

"Moreover, they ignore the suffering that many experience now which would be avoided or reduced by making assisted dying legal."

Mr Cope said medical practitioners should be able to refuse to assist people with voluntary euthanasia, but the should be required to refer the patient to another practitioner who would provide the service.

He said in addition to introducing voluntary assisted dying, the government also needed to provide an effective system of palliative care.

The committee will hold public hearings on May 3 in Caloundra.