NEW LAWS HAVE SPARKED MUCH-NEEDED DEBATE
GEELONG experts say the new voluntary assisted dying laws that come into effect today will only be accessed by a small number of patients.
Western Victoria Primary Health Network spokeswoman Dr Amy Litras said the group would hold an information session next week to ensure all local health professionals understand their rights, and the rights of patients, under the groundbreaking legislation.
“For professionals — there is a lot of information in regards to the legislation and processes as well as other rights and responsibilities,” Dr Litras said.
“The legislation is really quite narrow and very specific in regards to who will be eligible — it is only anticipated to be quite a small number of people who are both eligible and wanting (assisted dying).”
Dr Litras said doctors who were against assisted dying should be reassured that participation was not compulsory.
“While many health professionals will be supportive there will be many who have a conscientious objection — and no part of participation is mandatory,” Dr Litras said.
Under the laws only adults with the ability to make decisions and who have a disease or condition likely to cause death within six months — or a year for those with neurodegenerative conditions — will be able to access the scheme.
Three pharmacists at The Alfred are responsible for mixing the drugs and delivering them personally to patients across the state.
Deakin University health law expert and associate professor Neera Bhat Bhatia said the scrutiny around the voluntary assisted dying legislation had offered an important public conversation about death.
“We just aren’t comfortable with death, as a state of being or as a process, but it’s inevitable and it’s something that unites all of us,” Prof Bhatia said. “I think a positive from the public debate around this new legislation is that it is making us think about death and end-oflife wishes more broadly.”
Prof Bhatia said the community must look at advance care planning as a way to control decisions about how we are cared for.
“We must try to turn this conversation from voluntary assisted dying, which effects a very small proportion of society, to how we can all have control over our health and how we are cared for at all stages of our lives, not just at the end of life,” she said.