Victoria euthanasia laws: report outlines path for terminally ill to end own lives – The Guardian

Former Australian Medical Association head Brian Owler hands over a report to Victorian health minister Jill Hennessy after an independent panel released its recommendations for the states new assisted dying laws. Photograph: Joe Castro/AAP

Terminally ill Victorians with 12 months left to live will be able to legally end their own lives under a proposed assisted dying framework, described as the most conservative in the world.

On Friday, an independent panel chaired by the former Australian Medical Association head Brian Owler handed down its recommendations to the Victorian government on how best to implement voluntary euthanasia legislation.

The recommendations will be turned into a draft bill, which will be put to a vote before the end of the year, as the Daniel Andrews government seeks to become the first Australian state or territory to legalise voluntary assisted dying since the Northern Territorys legislation was repealed in 1997.

The panels final report outlined 66 recommendations and safeguards, with Owler calling it the most conservative model for voluntary assisted dying in the world.

Under the proposed rules, only Victorians who suffer from an incurable disease that is advanced, progressive and will cause death within 12 months, and who are experiencing pain that cannot be relieved tolerably, will be eligible.

Patients could access lethal medication, which must be stored in a locked box, within 10 days of making their first request to a doctor.

Patients would have to be over 18, Victorian residents and must have the decision-making capacity to choose to end their life. This would rule out any person suffering dementia, while mental illness and disability are also said to not be sufficient on their own to qualify a patient for assisted dying.

Further safeguards would also require a patient make three separate requests and receive the approval of two independent doctors. Requests for information are not to be considered formal requests, and the panel also recommended a voluntary assisted dying review board be established to review every assisted death.

The Victorian health minister, Jill Hennessy, said the move to legalise euthanasia had widespread community support and she would introduce legislation, subject to a conscience vote, by the end of the year.

Government will now consider this report and will respond in the next couple of weeks, she said.

The minister said she was optimistic the bill would pass, but committed to have it voted on as soon as possible. She also committed to an 18-month window between the bill passing and the legislation coming into effect.

Each and every single day I am approached by Victorians who are at the end of their life or who are caring for someone at the end of their life, for whom law reform cant come soon enough, she said. The vast majority of the mainstream support a change to the law.

The panel also recommended that new criminal offences with severe penalties should be created to prevent people coercing others to end their lives, though no set terms had been decided.

Doctors who are asked to assess a patients eligibility for assisted dying would be required to undertake specific training, and practitioners would be able to conscientiously object to providing advice.

The patient would also be able to rescind their request at any time.

Fridays report comes after an extensive process of consultation, including a parliamentary inquiry in June last year that recommended assisted dying laws. In May, the director of Dying with Dignity NSW, Shayne Higson, told Guardian Australia the Victorian bill had been the most thorough process in the history of this movement.

Victorias continued push to legalise assisted dying could encourage other states to attempt similar legislation.

In New South Wales, a cross-party bill sponsored by five MPs was unveiled in May, while Western Australias health minister, Roger Cook, has stated he supports voluntary euthanasia and has encouraged the drafting of a private members bill.

In South Australia, both the premier, Jay Weatherill, and the opposition leader, Steven Marshall, support assisted dying, and in November last year, a bill to legalise euthanasia was defeated by only vote, after the Speaker was called on to break a tie.

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Victoria euthanasia laws: report outlines path for terminally ill to end own lives - The Guardian