Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology.
Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology.
J Law Med. 2022 Mar;29(1):129-141.
Five Australian States - Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland - have now legalised voluntary assisted dying (VAD). These State legislative schemes intersect with provisions in the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (Commonwealth Criminal Code) which prohibit using electronic communication to counsel, promote, or provide instruction on "suicide". These provisions may prevent some conversations and assessments relating to self-administration of VAD occurring via telehealth, thereby restricting access for prospective VAD patients in regional and remote areas. However, as practitioner administration of VAD is not "suicide", the Commonwealth Criminal Code does not apply. The Commonwealth law creates the absurd result that the same conversation conducted via telehealth is illegal when contemplating VAD by self-administration, but legal when discussing practitioner-administered VAD. To avoid this, we advocate amending the Code to remove the inconsistency with state VAD laws. We also recommend State legislatures consider permitting greater access to VAD by practitioner-administered VAD.
五个澳大利亚州——维多利亚州、西澳大利亚州、塔斯马尼亚州、南澳大利亚州和昆士兰州——现已将自愿协助死亡（VAD）合法化。这些州的立法方案与 1995 年《刑法典法》（联邦刑法典）的规定相交叉，该规定禁止使用电子通信来劝导、推广或提供关于“自杀”的指导。这些规定可能会限制通过远程医疗进行与 VAD 自我管理相关的一些对话和评估，从而限制了偏远地区的潜在 VAD 患者的获取途径。然而，由于 VAD 的从业者管理并非“自杀”，因此联邦刑法典并不适用。联邦法律造成了荒谬的结果，即当考虑通过自我管理进行 VAD 时，通过远程医疗进行的相同对话是非法的，但当讨论从业者管理的 VAD 时则是合法的。为避免这种情况，我们主张修改该法典，以消除与州 VAD 法律的不一致。我们还建议州立法机构考虑允许更多的从业者管理 VAD 获得 VAD。
