Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asked people to have a respectful debate.Credit:Getty
The Law Reform Commission made several recommendations,including that to access euthanasia,people must have been diagnosed with a disease,illness or medical condition that is advanced,progressive and will cause death,be expected to die within 12 months,and be experiencing suffering the person considers to be intolerable.
The person must be separately and independently assessed by two doctors.
They must have decision-making capacity,be acting voluntarily and without coercion,be aged at least 18 years,be an Australian citizen and a resident of Queensland for at least one year.
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The process will include three separate requests,and there will be a waiting period of at least nine days between the first and final request.
The person must be told,more than once,that they may decide at any time not to continue.
Doctors and nurses who have a conscientious objection will have the right to not participate.
Medical professionals will not be allowed to proactively suggest euthanasia as an option to patients.
An oversight board and existing authorities will ensure the law is being complied with.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the laws were “not about suicide”,but instead about voluntary assisted dying.
Ms Fentiman said the laws would bring Queensland into line withVictoria,Tasmania andWestern Australia.
Clem Jones Trust chair David Muir said politicians would soon need to decide whether they supported giving terminally ill Queenslanders a choice.
“MPs who have stalled or refused so far to declare even an in-principle position on voluntary assisted dying have now run out of excuses.”
After the bill is introduced,it will be referred to the Parliament’s health committee for 12 weeks – double the usual time – and will be open for public consultation.
It will be debated in the Queensland Parliament in September.
If the laws pass,they are expected to come into effect in January 2023.
Cherish Life Queensland executive director Teeshan Johnson said the pro-life group would fight the laws with “all our might”.
“Legalisation of assisted suicide would expose the vulnerable,elderly and terminally ill to pressure - real or imagined - to do the ‘right thing’ and request death so they are not a ‘burden on their family’,” she said.