Lawyers push to legalise voluntary assisted dying via Telehealth
Australia’s peak body for lawyers wants federal laws prohibiting the use of Telehealth consultation to facilitate access to voluntary assisted dying be scrapped.
The peak body for lawyers has called for the scrapping of federal laws prohibiting use of telehealth consultations to facilitate access to voluntary assisted dying, urging the Northern Territory to push for the laws to be changed as it formulates its own euthanasia scheme.
The Australian Lawyers Alliance says laws prohibiting the use of a carriage service to assist someone to commit suicide will place health workers at risk of prosecution and limit patients’ access to the scheme.
A Federal Court ruling last November found VAD was considered suicide under the criminal code, meaning doctors could be prosecuted for providing advice over Telehealth or the phone – clarifying a previously grey area in medical law.
In its submission to the NT government on how its euthanasia framework should be designed, the ALA advised that the laws should be changed so that Telehealth could be used for at least one consultation required to access the scheme. “The ALA considers that commonwealth government action is required and that the code should be amended so that ‘suicide’ does not include voluntary assisted dying in circumstances where voluntary assisted dying is carried out lawfully pursuant to a state or territory law,” it said.
“The ALA invites the Northern Territory government to urge the commonwealth government to amend the definition of ‘suicide’ in the code to allow Telehealth consultations for voluntary assisted dying, for at least one of the two consultations a person is required to undertake with a health professional to access voluntary assisted dying.”
The ALA warned of inconsistencies between state and federal law in Victoria and Western Australia, where state legislation permits consultations for VAD over Telehealth, advising the NT government to carefully consider how its own legislation interacts with federal laws.
“The ALA considers the potential inconsistencies between the state or territory voluntary assisted dying schemes and the code to be undesirable,” the submission said. “It puts health professionals and other persons who are involved in the voluntary assisted dying schemes at risk of prosecution and has had significant impacts on the accessibility and efficiency of voluntary assisted dying schemes for health practitioners and patients alike.”
The NT has canvassed public opinion on whether access to VAD should be granted solely on the basis of mental health or to dementia patients, after the federal government overturned a 27-year ban on territories legalising assisted suicide.
WA independent MP Kate Chaney introduced a private member’s bill to parliament last month that would stipulate that VAD was not legally suicide, to enable patients to access consultations remotely and protect doctors from criminal charges.
The states and territories have raised concerns about the laws with Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the consultation was ongoing and she had not made “any decisions regarding telehealth end of life care”.
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