After decades of campaigning and growing public demand, Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) became a legal end-of-life option in New South Wales听from November 28.听听
This leaves only the Northern Territory and ACT, which can now follow after the restoration of territory legislative rights last year.
Terminally ill people in NSW are now able to through their doctor under the NSW health guidelines,听which sets out the process of application and approval.
The approval process is lengthy, the checks and balances more than robust.
Like any law granting citizens autonomy, ahead of the state鈥檚 control over individuals, the long journey to have VAD made legally available across Australia听was harder than it should have been.
Penny Hackett, President of ,听said after 50 years of lobbying that VAD鈥檚 legalisation brings mixed emotions for most advocates.听
鈥淭here will be a huge sense of relief and feelings of deep gratitude. But there will also be a touch of sadness, as we remember all of the courageous individuals who shared their stories during the campaign,鈥澨鼿ackett said.
Advocates remain committed to monitoring the process, including how it impacts people in rural and remote areas, or people who are too ill or infirm to travel to the required assessments.
Those assessments are presenting insurmountable logistics for terminally ill, non-mobile applicants, because doctors require the assessments to be done in person 鈥 because of an unintended conflict between VAD and a pre-existing law.
Telehealth ban discriminatory
There are two short 91自拍论坛 in the听Commonwealth Criminal Code听that leave VAD doctors open to potential prosecution if they use Telehealth phone, or videoconference, for VAD related consultations.
罢丑别听听amended the听听91自拍论坛 474.29A and 474.29B听to prohibit 鈥渢he use of a carriage service鈥 to discuss or send suicide related materials.听
While VAD law recognises it is not suicide, that is not specified in the Criminal Code and, if it isn鈥檛 specified, it is open to legal conjecture. Hence, VAD doctors have concerns.
There is broad agreement to remove ambiguity and听give the medical profession protection from prosecution and the potential $220,000 fine.
The agrees these laws put clinicians at risk,听and pose an 鈥渋mmense burden on very sick patients to travel or, if this is not possible, it requires doctors to travel large distances to see patients鈥 causing significant expense and cruel delays for dying patients.
The logistics and expense of the fly-in-fly-out model is unsustainable and removing potential legislative conflicts is a perpetual task.
The good news is this is one of those rare and special reforms that is both democratically supported and quite simple to fix.
To that end, Independent WA MP told The Guardian on November 13听she will introduce a bill seeking an exemption within the Commonwealth Code, to allow Telehealth to be used for VAD-assisted dying related matters.听听
The bill, which has long been sought by VAD advocates and the terminally ill, is supported by Independent MP and paediatric neurologist Dr Monique Ryan.
Chaney said she will introduce the Telehealth exemption clause in 2024. It may be a simple change, but the 50-year fight for VAD in Australia may leave advocates wary.
Until the Telehealth exemption is in force, non-mobile terminally ill people are now in the terrible position of finally being allowed to access VAD but being physically prevented from doing so.
For the long-suffering terminally ill, hopefully this small, democratic, request proves as simple as it looks.