Miles urges British MPs to back voluntary assisted dying laws

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles has written to British MPs urging them to back voluntary ­assisted dying laws for the terminally ill.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles has written to British MPs urging them to back voluntary ­assisted dying laws for the terminally ill.

Mr Miles, who championed his state’s VAD laws, has made a submission to British parliamentary inquiry “exploring arguments across the debate”.

In a letter to the committee, obtained by The Australian, Mr Miles said ensuring health practitioners were given conscientious objection was a “fundamental tenant” of Queensland’s law along with safeguards to prevent coercion or exploitation.

“I would encourage your lawmakers to act with compassion, to give the people of England and Wales the same end-of-life ­options as people in Australia, and to give them peace of mind that they will not be forced to endure a needlessly painful death,” he wrote.

“Our law is fundamentally about compassion, but it is also about giving back control to ­people who have had their autonomy stripped from them by ­illness. Certainly, some Queenslanders do not want to make that decision, but they should have every right to choose.”

Mr Miles said it was his “deep belief … these decisions should only be made by patients and their health professionals, not politicians or bureaucrats”.

In 2015, British MPs were overwhelmingly against VAD in their first vote on the issue in almost two decades.

Assisted dying will be revisited this year by a parliamentary committee, to be chaired by Conser­vative MP Steve Brine, which will make recommendations to ­government.

The inquiry will specifically examine what can be learnt from other countries where assisted dying is legal.

In 2002, The Netherlands became the first country to introduce assisted dying for the terminally ill, with schemes now in place in several countries including New Zealand, Spain and Canada.

All six Australian states are due to have programs running by the end of the year, with South Australia’s scheme launching next week followed by NSW in November. Federal laws restricting the ACT and Northern Territory from legislating on voluntary euthanasia were repealed last year but restrictions remain on providing VAD advice via telehealth.

Mr Miles’s submission made three recommendations to the UK; undertake extensive consultation, avoid terms that refer to “suicide” or “euthanasia” and ensure a well-resourced palliative care scheme.

“We recommend at all stages of legislative reform that consideration is given to ensuring the availability of high quality, accessible palliative care services and clearly communicating the message that voluntary assisted dying and palliative care are not mutually exclusive but rather are complementary,” he wrote.

VAD began in Queensland on January 1, amid deep Catholic Church anger that religious hospital and residential aged-care services would be forced to allow assisted dying onsite.

Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge in December said people undertaking VAD would generally not receive the sacrament of Viaticum – holy communion for the dying – a key part of the last rites.