Victorian euthanasia laws: Plan to give terminally ill adult patients access to lethal medication

TERMINALLY ill adults who are suffering would be able to apply for life-ending drugs under Victoria’s first voluntary euthanasia laws — but there are strict safeguards to avoid misuse of deadly drugs.

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TERMINALLY ill adults in pain who are told they have less than 12 months to live would be able to apply for lethal drugs under a plan for Victoria’s first voluntary euthanasia laws.

Patients would need to be of sound mind — ruling out people who suffer dementia — and would have to self-administer life-ending medication unless physically unable, in which case a doctor would deliver the dose.
Other rigorous safeguards include having to make repeated requests for death over time, keeping the deadly drugs in a locked box, and meeting strict residency requirements.

A new board would oversee the program and report any concerns to authorities.

Victorian Minister for Health Jill Hennessy. Picture: David Caird

It is understood people with a mental illness would not be excluded from the scheme as long as they also have an incurable illness that caused them suffering and they met other safeguards.

The framework for the radical Andrews Government laws, set to be debated later this year, will be unveiled tomorrow when an independent panel releases a final report into an assisted-death scheme.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy is understood to be supportive of the model proposed, which will be described as “the safest in the world”.

A ferocious campaign by anti-euthanasia advocates is set to be unleashed upon marginal electorates in the next few months in a bid to convince MPs to reject the laws when they are put to State Parliament as early as next month.

But television presenter Andrew Denton is set to lead a countering campaign in favour of the proposed laws.

The framework to be released by the panel, which has been chaired by neurosurgeon and former AMA President Dr Brian Owler, will be considered by Cabinet in coming weeks.

Neurosurgeon Dr Brian Owler. Picture: David Moir

There will be 66 recommendations to Government, including for the establishment of a Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board that would review every euthanasia case.

Any concerns would be reported to relevant authorities immediately for investigation.

Most of the recommendations align with a parliamentary inquiry report into end of life choices tabled last year, which was used as a starting point by the Andrews Government.

Premier Daniel Andrews, who went to the election saying he did not support euthanasia, last year revealed he had changed his mind after his father Bob died of cancer.

Other senior ministers said they had also changed position since a debate on the issue last decade.

There was a debate during the panel process over the amount of time terminally ill patients would have to apply for euthanasia, with a limit eventually set at 12 months.

States in the USA that have similar euthanasia laws to those proposed have a 6-month time frame, but many of Australia’s other end of life laws are set at 12 months.

The Government hopes there will be a vote on the proposed laws by the end of the year.