Voluntary assisted dying laws should not be forced on non-government healthcare providers: Mater group chair

Queensland’s non-government healthcare providers deserve the right to operate their hospitals according to their ethical standing and beliefs, writes Francis Sullivan, chair of the Mater group.

If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is that preserving life matters – regardless of age or health situation.

It is through this lens that law-makers must view the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, expected to be debated in State Parliament next month.

The proposed law is one of the most important and emotionally-charged to ever come before the Queensland Parliament, and calls on all of us to set aside personal judgments to ensure we achieve a workable, fair piece of legislation that serves Queenslanders for generations to come.

As it currently stands, the Bill purports to offer Queenslanders more choice when facing the end of life. In reality, it fails to offer anything other than assistance with dying.

In many parts of the state, palliative care services are non-existent. Where they do exist, they are inadequate and struggle to meet needs of the most vulnerable in our community.

Mater group chair Francis Sullivan.

Before we provide Queenslanders with the option to die, surely they deserve the option of living their final days with care, compassion, dignity and respect?

For healthcare providers such as Mater, the proposed law takes away our ability to operate our hospitals and community health services according to the ethos on which we were founded in Queensland more than a century ago. That ethos is one of compassionate care, from the beginning to the end of life.

The proposed VAD laws will force Mater to allow euthanasia to take place in our hospitals.

The legislation would over-ride Mater’s accreditation process that, for more than 100 years, has ensured the safety of our staff and patients by insisting the doctors and practitioners allowed into our hospitals are credentialed specialists who adhere to our high professional standards and ethical requirements.

The Bill dismantles this safety net and will require Mater to permit doctors who are not known to Mater to access our hospitals to administer lethal substances to our patients.

The Mater group is calling for hospitals to be given a choice when it comes to voluntary assisted dying laws. Picture: Dan Peled

These external health practitioners will not be required to inform hospitals, such as Mater, of their intention to enter our premises and euthanise a patient who is under the care of one of our own doctors, who have accompanied and compassionately cared for that person though their illness.

Our staff and patients – many of whom choose to work and receive care at our hospitals because they are part of our community – will also be denied the choice not to participate in assisted dying.

Nurses and other clinical staff may be forced to handle lethal drugs and be exposed to the euthanising of vulnerable people under their care. Likewise, patients – some of whom are accommodated in shared wards – will also inevitably be exposed to euthanasia, directly compromising their right to choose to conscientiously object to VAD.

The South Australian Parliament successfully managed to ensure all members of its community were provided with choice when it passed its voluntary assisted dying legislation recently.

In that state, the law gives faith-based hospital providers the ability to continue providing healthcare according to their ethos and to decline to participate in voluntary assisted dying.

Queensland’s non-government healthcare providers deserve the same right to continue to operate their hospitals according to their ethical standing and beliefs.

Patients who do not want to be exposed to assisted dying deserve the choice to receive care in a community where they feel safe and confident their views will be respected.

Organisations like Mater will always respect the law of our state and nation.

We simply ask that those laws respect our beliefs, our people and our patients.

• Francis Sullivan is chair of the Mater group