The Health Advocate August 2019

FROM THE AHHA DESK
AHHA in the news
19 JUNE 2019
Victoria’s ‘citizen-driven’ voluntary assisted dying laws
Australia’s first enduring voluntary assisted dying laws
came into effect on 19 June 2019 in Victoria.
‘The laws are not only a major shift in the response
to end of life —they are a watershed in the rise of
the consumer voice in health’, Australian Healthcare
and Hospitals Association (AHHA) Chief Executive
Alison Verhoeven said.
‘Public support for voluntary assisted dying is very
strong—it was estimated at 75% in an ABC survey
back in 2016—so the movement towards legislative
reform is not surprising.
‘It is likely other states will follow Victoria’s lead in
due course.
‘The key to legislative change in Victoria was the
approach taken in developing the new laws. It was
citizen-driven and inclusive, combining evidence,
science and social action’, Ms Verhoeven said.
‘Accordingly, the laws are cautious, with
many safeguards—but they have been agreed on
and passed.
‘In 2018 AHHA published two research papers on
this topic in our peer-reviewed Australian Health
Review journal—Documenting the process of
developing the Victorian assisted dying legislation
(author team led by Professor Margaret O’Connor,
Monash University), and the Future of assisted
dying reform in Australia (by Professors Ben White
and Lindy Willmott, Queensland University of
Technology). Professor White is an associate editor
with the Australian Health Review.
‘The authors argued that the rise of individualism
and personal autonomy in society has been a key
factor in changing social attitudes to issues such as
assisted dying’, Ms Verhoeven said.
‘They argued that “restlessness” in democratic
societies can be attributed to individuals seeking to
maximise their places in society through expressing
their individuality and autonomy in various ways.
‘This includes making their own informed choices
in healthcare, in the context of a more equal
8 The Health Advocate • AUGUST 2019