Thank you to the End of Life Law in Australia Team, QUT, for collating these articles and documents outlining recent developments in VAD in Victoria.
Voluntary assisted dying commences in Victoria
Today new assisted dying laws commence in Victoria, the first time in over 20 years that assisted dying has been lawful in an Australian State or Territory.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic) enables a person with capacity with an incurable illness or condition to seek assistance to end their life in limited circumstances. The legislation sets out 68 safeguards, including strict eligibility criteria, making it ‘one of the most conservative’ assisted dying laws in the world.
To learn more about the new laws, who is eligible, processes and safeguards, and assisted dying in Australia, read the new Assisted Dying factsheet.
The following resources also provide information about assisted dying and end of life law:
- Ben White, Eliana Close and Lindy Willmott, We don’t know all the details of how voluntary assisted dying will work yet – but the system is ready, The Conversation, 6 June 2018.
- Ben White, Eliana Close and Lindy Willmott, Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying law: Clinical implementation as the next challenge. (2019) Medical Journal of Australia, 210(5), 207-209.
- Palliative Care Australia, Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia: Guiding principles for those providing care to people living with a life-limiting illness, June 2019.
- Victoria Health, Voluntary Assisted Dying, 2019.
- Andrew McGee, Kelly Purser, Christopher Stackpoole et al, Informing the euthanasia debate: Perceptions of Australian politicians. (2018) University of New South Wales Law Journal, 41(4),1368-1417.
- Ben White and Lindy Willmott, Future of assisted dying reform in Australia. (2018) Australian Health Review, 42, 16-620.
- End of Life Law in Australia, Overview of end of life law in Australia factsheet, 2018.
- Lindy Willmott, Ben White, Christopher Stackpoole et al, (Failed) voluntary euthanasia law reform in Australia: Two decades of trends, models and politics. (2016) University of New South Wales Law Journal, 39(1), 1-46.