Australia’s only assisted-dying scheme will be legal in Victoria from mid-2019 after state parliament passed controversial legislation following more than 100 hours of debate.
The government-led bill passed the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, after earlier surviving a second scuttling attempt.
The scheme will be accessible only to terminally ill Victorian adults with less than six months to live.
It had gone to the lower house for ratification after the Legislative Council successfully passed the bill, with amendments, 22-18 last week.
But what was forecast as a simple procedure got bogged down in further debate when opponent and Liberal MP Robert Clark proposed a motion to “defer debate indefinitely” late on Tuesday.
Listen: Andrew Denton discusses euthanasia with Mia Freedman. Post continues after audio.
His move was voted down on Wednesday morning and the amendments were agreed to with little fanfare.
The bill requires royal assent and an implementation group will be formed to set up the scheme, including deciding on the lethal medication.
People applying to use the scheme must be determined by multiple doctors to be suffering intolerable pain and be of sound mind.
Except in cases when patients are too incapacitated, the scheme stipulates that the lethal medication be self-administered.
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I simply don’t understand why there is so much resistance to allowing people the choice to die with dignity. Extending life at all costs, using every available invasive treatment, when the patient is experiencing tremendous pain and/or no hope of improvement in qualify of life, is cruel in the extreme (not to mention an absurd and unsustainable burden on the health care system - great doco on this featuring Geelong ICU director Dr. Charlie Corke “In the End”). End of life care decisions should be made by the patient in conjunction with their health care providers, not by legislators and bureaucrats.
People want euthanasia because they are frightened of a long, painful death and believe this new law gives them control and I understand these reasons. However, in all of the debates about euthanasia and numerous stories surrounding the painful deaths of loved ones, you never hear people asking why did they suffer. Was it because they had intractable pain (which isn't that common), or was it because they did not receive quality Palliative Care? It seems that the answer to poor pain control is a doctor prescribed cou de gras. I wonder if euthanasia laws are a triumph for self determination, or a modern day quick fix for a difficult situation?