Abstract
Eligibility criteria determine a crucial question for all voluntary assisted dying frameworks: who can access assistance to die? This article undertakes a critical and comparative analysis of these criteria across five legal frameworks: existing laws in Victoria, Western Australia, Oregon and Canada, along with a model Bill for reform. Key aspects of these criteria analysed are capacity requirements; the nature of the medical condition that will qualify; and any required suffering. There are many similarities between the five models but there are also important differences which can have a significant impact on who can access voluntary assisted dying and when. Further, seemingly straightforward criteria can become complex in practice. The article concludes with the implications of this analysis for designing voluntary assisted dying regulation. Those implications include challenges of designing certain yet fair legislation and the need to evaluate voluntary assisted dying frameworks holistically to properly understand their operation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1663-1700 |
| Number of pages | 38 |
| Journal | The University of New South Wales law journal |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Ben P White, LLB (Hons) (QUT), DPhil (Oxford), Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology; Eliana Close, BSc (Hons) (Calgary), MA (Oxford), PhD (QUT), Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology; Lindy Willmott, BCom (UQ), LLB (Hons) (UQ), LLM (Cambridge), PhD (QUT), Professor, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology; Katrine Del Villar, BA (Hons) (ANU), LLB (Hons) (ANU), PhD (QUT), Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology; Jocelyn Downie, CM, FRSC, FCAHS, BA (Hons) (Queen’s), MA (Queen’s), MLitt (Cambridge), LLB (U of T), LLM (Michigan), SJD (Michigan), University Research Professor, Dalhousie University, Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty Business and of Law, Queensland University of Technology; James Cameron, BA (Melb), MA (Bioethics) (Monash), JD (Melbourne), PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne; Jayne Hewitt, BN (Flin), LLB (QUT), LLM (QUT), PhD (Griffith), Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Research Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith Law School, Griffith University; Rebecca Meehan, BHSc(Pod) (QUT), LLB (Hons) (QUT); Laura Ley Greaves, BSc (Hons) (Imperial), MBBS (Imperial), Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology. We disclose that Ben White and Lindy Willmott were engaged by both the Victorian and Western Australian governments to design and provide the legislatively mandated training for doctors involved in voluntary assisted dying. Jayne Hewitt was the project manager for the Victorian training project and Rebecca Meehan, Laura Ley Greaves and Eliana Close were employed on the project. Eliana Close and Katrine Del Villar were also employed on the Western Australian training project. James Cameron was a Senior Legal Policy Officer at the Department of Health and Human Services (Victoria) and developed and implemented the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic). Jocelyn Downie was a member of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on End-of-Life Decision-Making, a member of the plaintiffs’ legal team in Carter v Canada (Attorney General) [2015] 1 SCR 331, a member of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying. Rebecca Meehan is an employee of Queensland Parliament, but this article only represents her views. Ben White is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project number FT190100410: Enhancing End-of-Life Decision-Making: Optimal Regulation of Voluntary Assisted Dying) funded by the Australian government. The authors gratefully acknowledge the research assistance of Emily Bartels.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, University of New South Wales Law Journal. All rights reserved.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Philosophy
- Sociology and Political Science
- Law