With the Governor’s signature on 5 April 2018, Hawaii has given terminally ill patients the option to request medication that could end their lives. The new law, known as the Our Care, Our Choice Act, was passed by The Hawaii State Senate with a 23-2 vote on March 29, 2018. The...
Thanks to all those who attended our 2018 Annual General Meeting in Sydney on 17 March. We were very fortunate to have as our guest speaker the Hon. Lynda Voltz MLC, a Labor Upper House MP, the Shadow Minister for Sport and Veterans Affairs, and member...
Data provided by State Coroner Rosalinda Fogliani to the Parliament of Western Australia Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices revealed that a person with a terminal or debilitating illness takes their own life every nine days in WA. Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told the commitee the...
2017 was a big year for the voluntary assisted dying campaign in NSW and this newsletter includes or plans for 2018 and 2019. Read about what you can do now to help maintain the momentum that is building up across Australia and in many jurisdictions...
The NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 failed to pass in the NSW Upper House by one vote. All MPs were given a conscience vote (apart from the 5 Greens who supported it as party policy and the 2 Christian Democrats who opposed it as...
[caption id="attachment_7614" align="alignright" width="300"] Noel Conway and his wife, Carol McCusker, in 2016[/caption] Noel Conway, now aged 68, is a retired college lecturer who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a form of motor neurone disease) in November 2014. His condition is incurable and terminal. Last October, Noel...
The Australian Capital Territory's Legislative Assembly is calling for submissions to a Select Committee on End of Life Choices, which will review and report on end of life choices in the ACT on or before the 29 November 2018. The Chair of the Committee, Bec Cody...
The Western Australian Joint Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council has reportedly received more than 680 submissions. President of Dying With Dignity WA, Murray Hindle (pictured), said “The parliamentary inquiry here has the great advantage of all the data that was gathered in Victoria, both...
The DWD NSW Summer 2017 Newsletter is a special edition focusing on the NSW and Victorian voluntary assisted dying (VAD) bills, which coincidentally were debated within just a few days of each other. The passage of the Victorian Bill and the narrow defeat of the NSW...
ACT MP David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill received its First Reading vote in Parliament on 13 December 2017. 76 MPs voted in favour and 44 against sending the Bill to the NZ Justice Select Committee. Labour, Green and National party MPs were given a conscience vote. Labour...
Today the Victorian Parliament has made history by becoming the first Australian state to approve the introduction of a voluntary assisted dying scheme. After more than 100 hours of debate across both houses of the Victorian Parliament and two demanding all-night sittings, Lower House MPs...
"Today we saw history taking place with voluntary assisted dying laws passing the Victorian parliament, a first for any Australian state. Below is an extract of a letter to the Lamp magazine by NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association President Coral Levitt (pictured) from earlier this...