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...
Debate on the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill began in the Victorian Upper House on 2 November. After two days of emotionally-charged debate the bill passed the second reading by 22 votes to 18, and moved onto the committee stage. This stage began on 14 November and was eventually...
The NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill was a private member's bill introduced by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, a member of the Parliamentary Working Group on Assisted Dying. The bill, which they had developed over two years, in consultation with key stakeholders, failed to pass in...
A special Roy Morgan Snap SMS Survey was conducted on the night of 2 November, 2017 with a representative cross-section of 1,386 Australians aged 18+. Respondents were asked: “If a hopelessly ill patient with no chance of recovering asks for a lethal dose, should a...
The Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) announced its in-principle support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in a policy document released today. A total of 19 out of 21 AMSA representatives from every Australian medical school voted in favour of the policy. [caption id="attachment_11007" align="alignright" width="300"] Michael...