Latest news with #VAD
ABC News
25-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Three decades after the NT first legalised voluntary assisted dying, Territorians are still waiting on change
For Steve, every day is more painful than the last. Warning: This story contains graphic details of health conditions. After four-and-a-half years of medical treatment, the cancer that originated in his lungs is still spreading, while a tumour in his neck bleeds a half-a-litre of blood a week. At 62 years old, with every medical avenue exhausted, his options are limited. "I'm looking forward to an agonising number of weeks," he said. "If I have a fall I'll possibly bleed out here at home. Otherwise I can admit myself to hospital and bleed out there." Steve, who has asked for his surname not to be used, was in his thirties when the Northern Territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in 1995. The legalisation was short-lived. In 1997, federal parliament passed a bill, introduced by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, that overturned the law and prevented both of Australia's territories from legalising VAD until 2022. As of 2025, the Northern Territory is Australia's only state or territory without VAD legislation, with the ACT passing laws last year. At his home in Weddell, a suburb in Darwin's rural area, Steve questions why the process is taking so long. "I just want the choice to be able to go in my own time, without all the pain that I know I'm going to face. No mess, no fuss basically," he said. With weeks to live, Steve will admit himself to hospital when the time comes and "try [to] pass as quickly as he can". "Without VAD that's the only option I have, except for taking my own life, which I don't really want to do," he said. In 1995, then-chief minister Marshall Perron brought the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill before the NT parliament. He said he found his government debating two main groups in opposition — the NT Council of Churches and the Australian Medical Association (AMA). "The AMA were simply saying that this had never been done before, that these matters should be left to doctors," he said. Philip Nitschke, a former physician and high-profile VAD advocate who has rallied the medical community to support the practice, said he found the AMA took a "paternalistic" approach to what was a personal issue. "The argument was that doctors don't end lives, doctors save lives, [and] if you start ending lives it will destroy the so-called doctor-patient relationship," he said. Thirty years later the AMA has shifted its stance, updating its position statement on VAD to focus on regulation rather than opposition. The NT Council of Churches, Mr Perron said, was "a different kettle of fish". In 1995, the group argued VAD was antithetical to foundational Christian values, a position it continues to hold. The Australian Christian Lobby has repeatedly voiced its opposition to VAD over the years and has implored the current NT Country Liberal Party (CLP) government to consider whether there is demand for such legislation. The NT's Catholic Bishop in Darwin, Charles Gauci, said he opposed the practice, believing that it was "not an ethical way to go", but had sympathy for people who felt the need to use it. "We need to provide loving, palliative care for the dying person and their families," he said. Charles Darwin University senior lecturer Devaki Monani, who in 2023 sat on the expert advisory panel tasked with consulting NT communities on potential VAD legislation, said religion remained a concern for some. "A lot of people came up to me after the consultation and said 'look, I'm Christian and VAD is at crossroads with my belief systems'," she said. "It was a big elephant in the room for a lot of community members." In December 2022, a 25-year ban on the territories' rights to legislate VAD crumbled. The Restoring Territory Rights Bill, spearheaded by Darwin-based MP Luke Gosling and Canberra MP Alicia Payne, passed the federal Senate, overturning "Andrews bill". But change has been slow to eventuate in the NT. The former NT Labor government was criticised for inaction when it said in 2023 it would not progress VAD legislation until at least 2024, after the territory election. In July 2024, an expert advisory panel commissioned by Labor handed down its final report recommending the government bring back VAD in the NT. Progress has since stalled again, with the CLP government, elected in August, citing a lack of community consultation for not yet drafting legislation. Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has emphasised the importance of including Indigenous Australians in the consultation process. "Aboriginal people are very important stakeholders in this conversation," she said this month. "The original report was consulted on up and down the Stuart Highway in the main towns, it wasn't taken out to remote communities." Dr Monani said the expert advisory panel's process had included remote Indigenous residents. "All communities across the territory were given the opportunity to contribute, and Indigenous communities did so too," she said. According to its final report, the advisory panel held 10 consultation sessions with communities, including the remote towns of Nhulunbuy and Wadeye, and 47 consultations with health, education, community and faith organisations over an eight-month period. It found 73 per cent of Territorians believed a person should be able to choose when they die. The report also made several findings on "cultural issues relevant to the NT", including the importance of cross-cultural communication and trauma-informed care. In May 2025, 30 years after the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill was legislated, independent MLA Justine Davis brought forward a motion urging the NT government to implement VAD. On the same day, the government tasked the parliament's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee with consulting communities across the Northern Territory on VAD and, if recommended, providing drafting instructions for a new law. The committee will be required to report back by September 30. "Today marks a significant victory for people in the Northern Territory," Ms Davis said on the day. "This decision will bring much needed relief for those who are suffering." But for Steve, while that news is welcome, any change that comes will be too late. "I wish it had been available for me but that's not possible. So I just hope the baton will be carried on and people in future won't suffer," he said.
West Australian
19-05-2025
- Health
- West Australian
Questions of consent raised at Geraldton community forum on voluntary assisted dying
A community forum in Geraldton has reignited debate around one of the most sensitive issues in WA's voluntary assisted dying laws — the role of consent, particularly for people diagnosed with degenerative brain diseases. The forum on May 9 was one of two local sessions hosted by the WA Voluntary Assisted Dying Statewide Care Navigator Service in partnership with Rural Health West, the Midwest Gascoyne Health Professional Network and the Midwest Palliative Care Service. While the first session focused on educating rural health professionals, the second was open to the public and offered a platform for community questions and concerns. In the first three years of the legislation, which came into effect in WA in July 2021, 69 first requests to access VAD were recorded in the Mid West, making it the third-highest region in the State after the South West and Great Southern, according to the 2023-24 annual report of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Board. During that time, 40 people were assessed as eligible and underwent a first clinical assessment, while there were two participating VAD medical practitioners in the Mid West. Almost 2500 people requested VAD across WA between 2021 and 2024., with 737 deaths recorded. Statewide, VAD accounts for about 1.6 per cent of all deaths. A person must meet specific criteria to access VAD, including being 18 or older, an Australian citizen or permanent resident who has lived in WA for 12 months, have a qualifying disease or illness, act voluntarily and without coercion, have an enduring request, and have decision-making capabilities. One attendee at the forum asked whether the current legislation could ever change to allow people in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's to make an advanced request for VAD, knowing they would eventually lose the ability to give consent. Under WA's current VAD laws, the legislation requires individuals to maintain full decision-making capacity throughout the entire process — for those with neurodegenerative diseases, they must have a prognosis of no more than 12 months to live. If that capacity is lost at any point, the process cannot go ahead. While VAD is intended to offer a compassionate choice for end of life, it does not currently accommodate advanced directives for those facing progressive degenerative conditions. When asked if advanced consent would be something considered in WA legislation, Alice Morison, a nurse co-ordinator from WA VAD Statewide Care, said while it may not be something that happens soon, it was at the forefront of most discussions about VAD. 'If I know that I have dementia, could I put something in place? If I meet specific criteria at that time, the doctor would assist me to die? We're not there yet, and I don't think we're going to be there soon, but it's on the table,' she said. 'I just don't think it will happen soon, because I think we need a bit more time to understand what this looks like. 'We're not going to know really exactly what that will look like just yet, but at the end of the day, you'd be asking someone to administer a medication that would cause your death when you can't ask for it, and that's a tricky thing.' Leesa Thomas, Rural Health West general manager education and engagement, said providing education on VAD helped to start important conversations and breakthrough the stigma surrounding the topic. 'The events empower both healthcare workers and community members to make informed choices, strengthens local care capacity, and promote respectful conversations around health and wellbeing,' she said. 'Delivering education where people live is especially important in rural and remote WA, where distance and isolation can often hinder access to information and support. By offering sessions locally, communities can engage in meaningful dialogue about important health topics that affect them directly.'
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Commissioners invest in future of agricultural, natural lands
The Lee County commissioners made a landmark investment in the future of local agriculture and working lands at their Monday meeting. They voted to adopt a new conservation easement policy establishing an Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Fund and updating the existing Farmland Preservation Ordinance. The policy creates a conservation easement fund of $340,610, using roll back, or deferred, taxes generated when land is taken out of agricultural use and the Present Use Value program, most commonly when it is sold for development, according to Bill Stone, director of the county's Agricultural Extension Program. 'The newly established fund will reinvest the deferred taxes back into farmland preservation, earmarking these dollars toward landowner costs associated with conservation easement projects,' Stone said. Several residents spoke at Monday's meeting with most voicing support for the plan. 'It will empower farmers to resist rising development pressures, while advancing the public's goal of maintaining the open spaces which have always been such an essential and attractive element of life in Lee County,' said Jimmy Randolph of the Sanford Area Growth Alliance. Jim Foster noted that the county is continuing to grow and increase in population, subdivisions and schools. 'It's an increase in pretty much everything. With this type of growth, we have growing pains. One of the biggest pains is the loss of forest and farmlands,' he said. The board also voted to approve revisions to the existing farmland preservation ordinance that was last updated in 2013, Stone said. 'Along with maintaining their commitment to the Voluntary Agricultural District, or VAD, program, the board added the option for landowners to participate in the Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District, or EVAD. That program requires a 10-year irrevocable commitment from the landowner to agree to keep the land in agricultural use,' Stone said. The ordinance allows farms smaller than five acres to qualify for the VAD and EVAD programs, recognizing the growth of smaller farms in the county. 'I'm in support of the VAD and EVAD proposals, but I'm in opposition to creating a special fund that would provide taxpayer benefits to those paying taxes on the property,' Jim Womack said. 'The issue here is taking the taxpayers' money to benefit someone who doesn't want to pay taxes. The rollback taxes should come back to the taxpayer.' Commissioner Samantha Martin cast the lone vote against the conservation easement policy. Like Womack, she believes that rollback taxes should be returned to the taxpayers.
The Guardian
19-02-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Victoria scraps ‘gag clause' banning doctors from raising voluntary assisted dying with patients
For Nick Carr, one of the hardest things to witness as a doctor is terminally ill patients in unbearable pain and knowing there is an option to end their suffering – but not being able to speak of it. 'There's been times where I've been sitting there, having to sit on my hands, having to shut my mouth because I want to say to them, 'Do you know there is the option of voluntary assisted dying?' and I can't,' Carr says. 'There's no other medical treatment where you are banned from telling someone what their legal and viable medical options are. There's no other circumstance where the patient is required to know about their options and a doctor can't tell them. 'It's quite perverse.' But after a review of the state's laws, the so-called 'gag clause', which prevented Victorian doctors from discussing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) unless asked by their patient, will be lifted. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The review, to be tabled in parliament on Thursday, found that while Victoria's VAD laws were 'working as envisioned', some of the safeguards in place 'impede access' to the end-of-life choice. The gag clause was originally introduced to address concerns around coercion and the potential for people to face pressure to end their lives early. Victoria was the first state in Australia to pass VAD laws in 2017, which came into effect in 2019. Since then, all other states and territories, except the Northern Territory, have followed suit. As a result, the review found the once 'groundbreaking' laws in Victoria have become a 'more conservative model' when compared to other states. While the review focused on the operation of the law, it made five recommendations, all of which the state government has accepted. This included increasing community awareness of VAD and improving access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and multicultural communities. In its response, the government said it would also introduce legislation to parliament this year to 'respond to lessons from the review' and 'bring Victoria's voluntary assisted dying legislation more in line with other Australian jurisdictions'. The health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said 'reforming our Australian-first VAD laws' was 'critical' to ensure access across Victoria. 'We're looking to remove barriers and improve the experience for all patients, their families and health practitioners,' she said. Scrapping the gag law to allow health practitioners to initiate conversations about VAD, is among the reforms the government is considering and would align Victoria with New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia, where doctors can discuss it but must also talk about other treatment and palliative care options. The removal of the requirement for applicants to be Australian citizens and Victorian residents is also proposed. Carr, who serves on the board of Dying With Dignity, called this a 'huge issue' for people who have lived in Australia for years but were not citizens. He recalled the case of Julian Bareuther, his first VAD patient, who took his own life after being ruled ineligible, as he was a UK citizen despite living in Australia for 40 years. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'He came and saw me eight days after the laws came into effect. He had pancreatic cancer, he wanted VAD but because he was not formally an Australian citizen, he was denied the option,' Carr said. 'If the government removes that requirement, it would be a huge and welcome change.' The government is also considering changing the six-month life expectancy rule for non-neurodegenerative diseases, to 12 months – as prognoses often vary from doctor to doctor – removing the requirement for third assessments for patients with neurodegenerative conditions and shortening the time period between the first and final request for VAD. Jane Morris, the president of Dying With Dignity Victoria, welcomed the government's commitment to reform. 'We've heard so many very sad stories from people who've faced these barriers. To think that they may be righted is just the most incredible feeling,' she said. The Go Gentle chief executive, Linda Swan, said she was 'delighted' with the proposed changes, which will 'significantly reduce needless suffering'. 'They show the government is listening to terminally ill people and their families and the health professionals who care for them,' Swan said. The review found that between 2019 and 2023, 1,527 VAD permits were issued. Of those, 912 people (60%) opted to use the VAD substance, while 400 others had it dispensed but didn't use it. There was 99.3% compliance over the four years, with just 14 cases of non-compliance, half of which involved relatives not returning the VAD substance within the required 15 days. No instances of misuse were reported. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at
