Rutherford Jodhi
PhD Candidate/Sessional Academic, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology.
J Law Med. 2018 Oct;26(1):246-264.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act Vic will commence operation on 19 June 2019. Doctors were highly visible in the debate which informed the recent law reform process, and Victorian legislators relied considerably on the diverse views of the medical profession. It is important to pay attention to the role played by doctors in the legalisation of assisted dying in Victoria, not only because the current political environment suggests that further reforms may be likely in other Australian jurisdictions, but also because doctors' knowledge and expertise visibly contributed to the outcome of that process in Victoria. This article aims to map the participation of doctors in the recent law reform process to analyse how their professional attributes positioned them in the Victorian assisted dying space. It is suggested that doctors were afforded a place in law reform because of the routine acceptance of doctors as knowledge keepers in matters of life and death and an acknowledgment of the integral role of medical expertise in the legislation. A textual analysis of the Hansard record of the Victorian debate reflects that individual practitioner advocacy for legalisation prevailed over opposition by the national branch of the Australian Medical Association in the deliberations of parliamentarians.
《维多利亚州自愿协助死亡法案》将于2019年6月19日开始实施。在为近期法律改革进程提供信息的辩论中，医生们非常引人注目，维多利亚州的立法者在很大程度上依赖于医学专业的各种观点。关注医生在维多利亚州协助死亡合法化过程中所起的作用很重要，这不仅是因为当前的政治环境表明澳大利亚其他司法管辖区可能会进行进一步改革，还因为医生的知识和专业技能明显促成了维多利亚州这一进程的结果。本文旨在梳理医生在近期法律改革进程中的参与情况，以分析他们的专业属性如何使他们在维多利亚州协助死亡领域中占据一席之地。有人认为，在法律改革中给予医生一席之地，是因为人们通常认可医生在生死问题上作为知识守护者的角色，也承认医学专业知识在立法中的不可或缺的作用。对维多利亚州辩论的议会议事录的文本分析表明，在议员的审议中，个别从业者对合法化的支持压倒了澳大利亚医学协会全国分会的反对。
