Euthanasia and assisted suicide proponents in Victoria, Australia, are seeking to expand the Australian state’s assisted suicide law following the deaths of eight Victorians, who killed themselves after they were denied access to physician-assisted suicide.
Coroner Simon McGregor asked for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board to evaluate those deaths — a move that, according to The Age, gives hope to assisted suicide advocates who want to see the 12-month life expectancy rule for non-neurodegenerative diseases repealed, along with other safeguards.
It seems that assisted suicide advocates are attempting to portray government-sanctioned assisted suicide as if it is an acceptable and non-tragic way to die, while portraying suicide without the sanction of the government as unacceptable and tragic. Both, however, tragically end the life of a valuable and irreplaceable human being.
Under Victorian law, assisted suicide is accessible to those who meet all of the criteria, which include having an “advanced disease that will cause their death and that is likely to cause their death within six months (or within 12 months for neurodegenerative diseases like motor neurone disease) [and] causing the person suffering that is unacceptable to them.” They also must have the ability to make and communicate their decision to die through a formal request, be age 18 or older, be living in Victoria for at least one year, and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
McGregor found nine cases in which a deceased individual had been denied access to assisted suicide because he or she was deemed ineligible. Eight of them were found to have ended their own lives, and the ninth potentially died by suicide.
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“A recurring theme throughout many of these deaths was the impact that voluntary assisted dying refusal had on the deceased,” he wrote. “Family members often reported that when people believed they would have access to voluntary assisted dying they maintained hope that they would be able to exercise control over how they died; when their access to voluntary assisted dying was refused, their consequent despair and frustration contributed to their decision to take their own life.”
In other words, when individuals commit suicide alone, it is to be considered a tragedy; however, when they commit suicide with the aid and sanction of the government, it is not to be considered a tragedy.
“I would ask the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board to remain open to considering this finding as part of a developing body of evidence about where there may be opportunities to improve the operation of voluntary assisted dying in the state,” McGregor added.
Once called “the safest, and most conservative model in the world,” by former Premier Daniel Andrews, it seems the Victoria law could be headed down the slippery slope that former prime minister Paul Keating warned about.
“Once termination of life is authorised the threshold is crossed,” Keating said in 2017. “From that point it is much easier to liberalise the conditions governing the law. The experience of overseas jurisdictions suggests the pressures for further liberalisation are irresistible.”
Dr. Nick Carr, who supports the expansion of the assisted suicide law, hopes that McGregor’s findings will inspire the board to make changes. One of his patients committed suicide alone after being denied government-sanctioned suicide because he was not an official Australian citizen.
In addition to seeking a reduction of the 12-month timeline to six months for individuals with neurodegenerative conditions, assisted suicide supporters want the board to remove the ‘gag clause’ that ensures that the patient is the one who initiates the assisted suicide conversation with the doctor (and not vice versa), opening the door to potential medical coercion. Supporters also want the six-month life expectancy requirement for those diagnosed with incurable diseases to be removed as well.
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