Australia’s Northern Territory passes voluntary assisted dying law
Australia’s Northern Territory Parliament has passed a voluntary assisted dying law. Territory residents will be able to use the procedure after the law comes into force in 18 months. The Northern Territory government also promised to review the legislation after three years.
As ABC News Australia reports, the Northern Territory became the last Australian jurisdiction to introduce such provisions. In 1995, the world’s first voluntary assisted dying law was passed there, but in 1997 it was repealed by the federal government led by then Prime Minister John Howard.
Restrictions of the new law
Access to the procedure will be available to people whose doctor determines that they have a life expectancy of less than 12 months. This restriction was criticized by Dr Philip Nitschke, head of the campaign group Exit International, who 30 years ago helped cancer patient Bob Dent undergo the procedure under the 1995 law.
Nitschke called the new legislation conservative and said that it is difficult for doctors to accurately predict how long a patient will live. According to him, the requirement for a 12-month prognosis gives doctors too great a role in deciding access to the procedure. The Northern Territory’s 1995 law did not contain such a restriction.
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In other Australian jurisdictions, except for the Australian Capital Territory, access to voluntary assisted dying is also subject to life-expectancy limits of six or 12 months.
Reactions to the decision
Former Northern Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron, who authored the 1995 law, called the 12-month prognosis requirement “a great pity.” In his view, the new law narrows access to the procedure compared with the approaches of other jurisdictions.
The law also prohibits doctors from being the first to initiate a conversation with patients about voluntary assisted dying. A similar rule is in force only in South Australia. Nicholas Lay, director of the Australian Christian Lobby in the Northern Territory, said his organization was disappointed by the law’s passage.
