Premier rejects bid to let doctors initiate VAD discussions with terminally ill patients
The legal ban on doctors initiating discussions on voluntary assisted dying with their patients in Victoria seems certain to remain, despite fresh complaints that it forces doctors to be “borderline negligent”.
More than 600 Victorians have ended their lives through the voluntary assisted dying (VAD) scheme since its 2019 introduction, with a scheduled four-year review of the legislation kicking off this month.
On Monday, The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) published a qualitative study with 33 Victorians who had dealt with the VAD system, mostly loved ones of patients who had died.
They described the rules as “borderline negligent” and filled with “secret squirrel business”, with doctors “muzzled” by the ban on raising assisted dying with their patients.
