The ACT will bring medical experts and members of the public together for a rare “citizens’ jury” to consider one of voluntary assisted dying’s most sensitive ethical conundrums.

The ACT Government is wrestling with whether voluntary assisted dying (VAD) plans should be followed through if patients approved for a medically assisted death subsequently lose their decision-making capacity.

It has announced that a committee of members of the public will spend two years listening to doctors, legal experts, patients, carers and advocacy groups discuss a potential substitute decision-making system, then give recommendations to the Territory Government.

Under the current ACT scheme, a health practitioner must confirm a patient is giving clear, uncoerced, informed consent before a VAD substance is administered.