TheHerald has long argued in favour of this measure because it believes individuals have a right to choose not to prolong lives which they know will bring only excruciating and hopeless torment. The tragic and ugly truth is that without access to assisted dying many people have resorted to the horrible and undignified gamble of unassisted suicide.
Voluntary assisted dying legislation has passed in NSW Parliament,making it legal for some patients with terminal illnesses to soon chose when to end their pain.
The NSW legislation draws on other states’ legislation and is a cautious model with strong safeguards against abuse.
NSW Health will begin taking applications via an online portal at 6am. The approval process is usually expected to take around three weeks,but could be faster in exceptional circumstances. About 150 NSW doctors have been certified for the approval process. Two must confirm that a candidate has an advanced,terminal disease likely to kill them within six months,or 12 months in the case of a neurodegenerative disease such as Motor Neurone Disease.
The law requires a five-day wait between a patient’s first request,which is followed by the two consultations,and their final,written request. If the application has been granted by a board,a doctor prescribes the drug. When and if the patient decides to have the prescription filled,an encrypted email is sent to a special pharmacy,which delivers the drug in a locked steel box.
Administering fatal medicine is a new frontier for doctors just as there is little indication of how many will likely access assisted dying in NSW. VAD legislation came into effect in Queensland last January and in the first six months,591 people started the process and 245 died:their median age was 73,and 78 per cent had a cancer diagnosis.
Historically,the Australian way of death was being allowed to run its natural course. But the reality was that action to help the terminally ill was often left by default to the medical profession. In 1997,a survey of doctors suggested that almost a third of Australian deaths were preceded by a medical decision explicitly intended to hasten the patient’s death. Four years later,a Newcastle University survey found 32.2 per cent of surgeons responding to a survey had admitted to giving drugs intended to hasten a patient’s death.
Always a highly contentious issue,it was a conscience vote that took the VAD legislation through NSW parliament in May 2022. The Independent MP Alex Greenwich convinced then premier Dominic Perrottet to bring forward the assisted dying bill as the price of support for minority government.
Neither Perrottet nor then opposition leader Chris Minns supported the motion. The bill attracted strong support,but it was not always the case:The former Greens MP Ian Cohen introduced the state’s first euthanasia bill in 2002,securing only four votes.
Clearly,societal attitudes have changed since but many have theological concerns about VAD. The and the firmly oppose and have been grappling with how to balance legal obligations with religious objections. However,the bill has struck a sensible compromise on the difficult issue of the rights of residents in their hospitals and nursing homes,and institutions will not be forced to offer assisted dying,although the NSW legislation stipulates they will not be able to prevent transfer to other facilities.
NSW enters unknown territory on Tuesday. There certainly are challenges,not least ensuring that regional and rural patients have the same access as people living in city centres,but the reform is a win for compassion and common sense.
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