The Northern Territory is to begin work on its own voluntary assisted dying laws, more than 25 years after its pioneering legislation was struck down by the federal government.
The NT became the first Australian jurisdiction to make voluntary euthanasia legal in 1995 but the provisions were overturned by former prime minister John Howard’s coalition government two years later.
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said a community consultation process would be conducted to help develop a framework for voluntary assisted dying under the guidance of an expert advisory panel.
Former NT administrator Vicki O’Halloran and senior counsel Duncan McConnel have been appointed as co-chairs of the expert panel with applications open for other members.
They will be chosen based on their expertise in end-of-life health care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural matters, justice, and social welfare policy.
The panel will be required to present a report to the government by July next year.
[Source: Canberra Times]
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Ric
18 Apr 2024As my husband lays dying painfully from esophelgeal cancer in Alice Springs, I wish he had been able to access VAD as had been his wish
Instead, he suffers every day and can do nothing but wait for the inevitable.
This should have been his choice to make, but here we are…