Furness Kate, Howe Jim, Chipman Mitchell, Parsotam Nirasha, O'Connor Margaret
Safer Care Victoria, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia; and Department of Nursing and Allied Health, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University, John Street, Hawthorn, Vic. 3122, Australia.
Safer Care Victoria, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia; and School of Rural Health, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, Vic. 3800, Australia.
Aust Health Rev. 2023 Feb;47(1):64-66. doi: 10.1071/AH22192.
A major barrier to Victorians with a terminal illness accessing voluntary assisted dying is the Commonwealth Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences ) 2005 (the Code), which prohibits the use of any electronic forms of communication when discussing suicide. The proliferation of telehealth as a means of access to medical practitioners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the anachronistic prohibition of such communication in relation to voluntary assisted dying, particularly in Victoria, as the federal law arguably prohibits its use. In this paper we explore the definition of suicide and its application to voluntary assisted dying and argue for a revision of the Code, to enable equitable and timely access to voluntary assisted dying for people of Victoria.
对于身患绝症的维多利亚州人来说，获得自愿协助死亡的一个主要障碍是2005年《联邦刑法修正案（与自杀相关的材料犯罪）》（以下简称《刑法》），该法案禁止在讨论自杀时使用任何电子通信形式。由于新冠疫情，远程医疗作为一种联系医生的方式得到了广泛应用，这使得《刑法》中对自愿协助死亡相关通信的不合时宜的禁令更加突出，尤其是在维多利亚州，因为联邦法律可以说是禁止使用这种通信方式的。在本文中，我们探讨了自杀的定义及其在自愿协助死亡中的应用，并主张修订《刑法》，以使维多利亚州的人们能够公平、及时地获得自愿协助死亡服务。
