‘I will not suffer’: Voluntary Assisted Dying accessible from today

Voluntary Assisted Dying is now accessible in NSW, making VAD universal across all Australian states - but one woman who wants it isn’t yet able to register.

Maryann Stevenson, 64, suffers from emphysema

Voluntary assisted dying is now universal across all Australian states, with NSW from today allowing eligible individuals to request medical assistance to end their lives.

The VAD law in NSW has largely followed of other states, allowing a person with an advanced and progressive illness that is likely to be terminal within six months, to end their lives following an eligibility assessment from two doctors.

The terminal condition must be causing the person suffering which cannot be relieved in a way the person considers tolerable. The patient must have capacity to make the decision to end their lives, or have signed legal documents to express their intention to end their lives when they had capacity. They must also be acting voluntarily and without pressure or duress.

Patients reacted with immense relief after the legislation passed through NSW’s lower house, but many hold concerns the bar is too high for accessing VAD.

Maryann Stevenson, 64, has been waiting for VAD laws to come into effect in NSW for several years, after being diagnosed with emphysema 15 years ago. She recently witnessed her mother-in-law suffer with the same lung disease in its late stages.

Ms Stevenson also suffers from fibromyalgia, which can increase the experience of pain, and recently suffered a minor stroke making her vulnerable to more severe strokes in the future.

“I was told by my doctor that with emphysema you can be okay, you can be moving along… and then all of a sudden it can just drop and you’ll get really bad really quickly,” Ms Stevenson said.

“I watched the suffering of my mother-in-law, she suffered so much and I just couldn’t go through that,”

“They say it is one of the worst ways of dying because you’re basically suffocating.”

Ms Stevenson has made the decision to seek voluntary assisted dying before reaching the very late stages of emphysema, however, due to strict criteria she is not eligible to apply, given it would be impossible for any doctor to say whether her illness would cause her death within six months.

The criteria bar is 12 months for neurodegenerative diseases.

The process to apply requires a person to first request VAD from a trained medical practitioner, who then conducts an eligibility assessment. A person then needs a second doctor to conduct another eligibility assessment.

Following this, the person must make a second request for VAD in the form of a written letter, and a final verbal request for VAD. Officials then need to authorise it, before the medicine is either dispensed to the person for self-administration, or a health practitioner administers it to them.

Ms Stevenson’s doctors can not tell her when she will decline into late stages, however they have confirmed it is only a matter of time, in part because she has struggled to quit smoking.

Even when she does reach the painful last stages of emphysema, the suffering can often go on for more than six months, usually years, she said.

“It is a peace of mind thing, to be prepared before it gets that bad, it would make all the difference in the world to me,” Ms Stevenson said.

“I will not suffer, I will not suffer, I will take medicine into my own hands before I suffer.”

“By the time I get registered, it could be a couple of years. I could have another stroke before then and not be able to speak, my breathing could be severely affected by my emphysema,” Ms Stevenson said.

“I want to be eligible before I’m really sick, if I can’t, like I said, there’s other ways.”

“My sister says only cowards take their lives, but I don’t believe in that.”