A gag clause prohibiting physicians from initiating conversations about voluntary euthanasia is one of many outdated legislative safeguards that should be abolished, say doctors and families pushing for a major reform of the landmark legislation.
A gag clause prohibiting physicians from initiating conversations about voluntary euthanasia with the terminally ill is one of many outdated legislative safeguards that should be abolished, say doctors and families pushing for a major reform of the landmark legislation ahead of a review.
Many people had “beautiful and brilliant” stories about the life and death changing nature of Victoria’s 2019 euthanasia laws, said Dying with Dignity Victorian vice president Jane Morris, but for some others, particularly in rural and regional areas, “it has been a horrendous and heartbreaking experience”.
Despite being given a terminal diagnosis, his daughter Cherie Loncar, said her father struggled for months to find an oncologist in Geelong, who had undertaken the mandatory training, and able to determine that Daryl had six months left to live.“In the end, we were dragging Dad around from pillar to post to get things signed off, and he was so sick,” Loncar said. “It was just so cruel.”
Victoria’s laws allow access to a lethal substance for terminally ill adults who have only about six months to live – or no longer than 12 months for those with a neurodegenerative diagnosis – and who meet other strict eligibility criteria such as being able to give informed consent. He said there was an argument to allow terminally ill people to undergo an assessment as soon as they are informed they are dying, with the proviso medication would be dispatched only when they have about six months to live.
He said there had been several cases of terminally ill people locked out of the state’s voluntary assisted dying scheme and living out their final days in intolerable pain because they did have permanent residency, despite living in Victoria for decades. Oncologist Cameron McLaren: “We should be able to inform patients of what their rights and options are. That’s just good medicine.”“Doctors should be able to initiate that conversation in the context of a broader discussion on care options,” McLaren said. “We should be able to inform patients of what their rights and options are. That’s just good medicine.”
Carr said he would argue in court assisted dying was not suicide, a consensus shared by many in the medical community. “Voluntary assisted dying is about giving patients who are already dying a choice about how they die,” he said.
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