Assisted suicide in Australia
As of June 2024 all states and the Australian Capital Territory have passed legislation creating an assisted suicide and euthanasia scheme for eligible individuals.
In 2010, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal quashed a manslaughter conviction of a Sydney woman who had previously been found guilty of killing her partner of 18 years with a euthanasia drug.
[11][12] In 2002, relatives and friends who provided moral support to an elderly woman who committed suicide were extensively investigated by police, but no charges were laid.
In Tasmania in 2005 a nurse was convicted of assisting in the death of her elderly father, who had terminal cancer, and trying to kill her mother, who was in the early stages of dementia.
The prosecution argued that Graeme Wylie did not have the mental capacity to make the crucial decision to end his life, classing it as involuntary euthanasia.
[16] The following year the Supreme Court of New South Wales gave a two-year suspended sentence to a 66-year-old man who had facilitated the death of his long-term 78-year-old partner by helping her overdose on drugs and suffocating her.
The court accounted for the accused's substantial impairment at the time the act was committed as well the fact that he voluntarily revealed his involvement in the commission of the offence.
[20] This occurred in 1997, when the Federal Parliament passed the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, originally introduced as a private member's bill by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews.
[37][38] The Albanese Government, elected in May 2022, endorsed a conscience vote on repeal legislation that was introduced by Labor MPs Luke Gosling and Alicia Payne on 1 August 2022.
Justice Wendy Abraham found that the term suicide, as used in the criminal code, applies to the ending of a person's life through voluntary assisted dying.
[56][57] Australian Capital Territory (ACT) governments had regularly advocated for the right to legalise euthanasia-related schemes between 1997 and 2022, when the federal ban was in practice.
[58] A formal consultation period was opened by the government in February 2023,[59] which culminated in a report endorsing the establishment of a voluntary assisted dying scheme, published on 29 June 2023.
[61][62] Under the legislation, a person would be eligible for voluntary assisted dying if they are aged over 18, seeking it voluntarily with decision-making capability, intolerably suffering an advanced-progressive condition expected to cause death, and lives local to the ACT for at least 12 months or with a significant Canberra connection.
Liberals committee members Leanne Castley and Ed Cocks recommended that the bill not be passed, describing it as “the most ideological and extreme assisted dying legislation in the country”, while Greens member Andrew Braddock supported the bill and recommended it be expanded to include people with dementia who had lost individual decision-making capacity.
[67] Under the finalised legislation, people will become eligible to begin the process of accessing the scheme if they are at least 18 years old and seeking voluntary assisted dying voluntarily with decision-making capability.
Further, they will have to show that they are intolerably suffering an advanced, progressive condition expected to cause death and that they have been local to the ACT for at least 12 months, or have a significant Canberra connection.
[7][71] On 21 September 2017 National Party MLC Trevor Khan introduced the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 into the New South Wales Parliament.
The Bill was modelled on the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, and was developed by a cross party working group that considered 72 "substantial" submissions.
[73] The Bill contained what advocates labelled a "raft of safeguards" including a seven-person oversight board to review all assisted deaths.
[75] In October 2021 independent MLA Alex Greenwich introduced the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill into the lower house of the Parliament.
A final request must be made five days later and a review done by the first doctor, who can then apply to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Board to allow access to a substance to end their patient's life.
Before the federal override occurred, three people died through physician assisted suicide under the legislation, aided by Dr Philip Nitschke.
[87] Following the repeal of the federal ban on territory-based euthanasia legislation, the Northern Territory government announced the formation of a community consulation process "for developing a framework for voluntary assisted dying", submissions for which closed in February 2024.
[89] The process culminated in the release of a report by an independent expert advisory panel, co-chaired by the Hon Vicki O’Halloran AO CVO and Duncan McConnel SC, which recommended a voluntary assisted dying scheme be established in the Northern Territory.
[91] In November 2018, the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, launched an inquiry considering the possible legalisation of voluntary assisted dying in the state.
[93] The bill would allow euthanasia, if the patient meets the following criteria:[94] On 16 September 2021, the Queensland Legislative Assembly passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 with 61 votes in favour and 31 opposed.
[97] In November 2016, the South Australian House of Assembly narrowly rejected a private member's bill which would have legalised a right to request voluntary euthanasia in circumstances where a person is in unbearable pain and suffering from a terminal illness.
[108] The End of Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill was introduced to the Council on 27 August and was passed on 10 November 2020, without a formal vote being recorded.
The bill was modelled on the recommendations of an expert panel chaired by former Australian Medical Association president Professor Brian Owler.
