As Victoria’s landmark voluntary assisted dying legislation comes up for review,doctors,families and patients are calling for the scheme to be expanded to include people with dementia.
Our dog Denis had a good,long life. And we had a good life because of him.
Descending through dementia’s seven stages into a “catastrophic vegetative state” is a terrifying prospect. Yet Voluntary Assisted Dying is not an option.
Objections to voluntary assisted dying by palliative care and health institutions are causing serious harm and emotional suffering to dying Victorians. Some have been left scrambling to be transferred in their final days,so they can take the lethal medication.
Doctors are pushing for a major reform of Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws,including the scrapping of a gag clause prohibiting them from instigating conversations about euthanasia with the terminally ill.
Hundreds of Victorians who have qualified for euthanasia medication have not used it. For some of them,it’s about having the choice to take it.
Australia is a step closer to having nationwide voluntary assisted dying laws after the Territory Rights bill passed the Senate on Thursday evening.
While the scheme opens to terminally ill residents next month,efforts to dump federal laws banning doctors from remotely aiding suicide are yet to deliver.
The 90-minute forum in front of an audience of about 70 people was far from boring. A feisty exchange on infrastructure,an examination of the power of the crossbench and plenty of advice from the audience were among the standout moments.
A Victorian senator has described the highly emotional circumstances of her father’s death amid a debate about whether to overturn a 25-year ban on the ACT and NT legalising voluntary euthanasia.
Federal MPs voted 99 to 37 to support a bill to repeal Howard-era laws that have banned the territory parliaments from legalising assisted dying.