White Ben, Willmott Lindy
Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Qld. 4000, Australia. Email.
Aust Health Rev. 2018 Dec;42(6):616-620. doi: 10.1071/AH18199.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic) will come into force in June 2019, becoming the first law in Australia in 20 years to permit voluntary assisted dying (VAD). This paper considers how other Australian states and territories are likely to respond to this development. It analyses three key factors that suggest that law reform is likely to occur in other parts of Australia: (1) the growing international trend to permit VAD; (2) social science evidence about how VAD regimes operate; and (3) changes to the local political environment. The paper argues that these three factors, coupled with the effect of Victoria changing its law, suggest that other VAD law reform is likely to occur in Australia. It also considers the different types of laws that may be adopted, including whether other states and territories will follow the very conservative Victorian approach or adopt more liberal models.
2017年《自愿协助死亡法案》（维多利亚州）将于2019年6月生效，成为澳大利亚20年来首部允许自愿协助死亡（VAD）的法律。本文探讨了澳大利亚其他州和领地可能对此发展态势做出的反应。分析了表明澳大利亚其他地区可能进行法律改革的三个关键因素：（1）允许自愿协助死亡的国际趋势日益增强；（2）关于自愿协助死亡制度运作方式的社会科学证据；（3）当地政治环境的变化。本文认为，这三个因素，再加上维多利亚州法律变更的影响，表明澳大利亚其他地区可能会进行自愿协助死亡法律改革。还考虑了可能采用的不同类型法律，包括其他州和领地是会效仿维多利亚州非常保守的做法，还是会采用更宽松的模式。
