Queensland lawmakers need to pay close attention as Victoria implements its voluntary assisted dying laws, to learn from the challenges they will likely face, a leading health law academic says.
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In a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, Queensland University of Technology experts in health law say Victoria will face a number of challenges when its laws come into force on June 19.
One of the paper’s authors, Professor Ben White from QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research, said one of the main issues would be the complexity of the legislation itself.
“It is quite a complex regime which has a number of procedural steps, and that’s by design - the goal was the make sure there are processes in place to protect the vulnerable and only allow eligible people to access the system,” Professor White said.
“So the challenge in implementing that is really making sure that complexity isn’t experienced by doctors or patients who have a terminal illness and are suffering.”
Victoria’s laws were passed in 2017 in a marathon 24-hour debate in that state’s parliament, which followed extensive stakeholder and legal consultation.
Among other measures in the legislation is a requirement for doctors to not mention the option of voluntary assisted dying unless specifically sought out by the patient.
“That sits awkwardly with that wider policy goal of open discussion of end of life care and all the work that’s been done over advanced care planning,” Professor White said.
“That prohibition was designed to avoid coercion. There could be challenges in terms of making sure patients are aware of all their options.”
He said it highlighted the issues around implementing a legal framework into the day-to-day reality of medical practice.
Victoria will have an 18-month implementation period after the law comes into force to help ease the transition, which Professor White said would be closely watched by other jurisdictions.
“That’s how it operates in Australia. One state passes laws and the rest of the country has a close look to see how those laws operate in practise,” he said.
“But (each state) will make their own decisions about what’s best for them.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last year announced a 12-month inquiry period for voluntary assisted dying, with a state parliamentary committee set to report back in November after holding a series of public hearings.
The tight restrictions of Victoria’s legislation are already apparent, after Melbourne firefighter Troy Thornton travelled to Switzerland last week to end his own life.
The 54-year-old was suffering from a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and had no prospect of recovery but it takes years for the condition to prove fatal, leading to long-term agony as various bodily systems shut down at random.
Mr Thornton would not have become eligible to access Victoria’s incoming VAD laws because he could not get two independent doctors to certify that his condition would be fatal in the next 12 months, one of the many strict conditions under the new framework.
The Queensland inquiry will also consider a Queensland Health palliative care services review, as well as laws, reviews and reports from other Australian states and territories, and overseas.
