On 13 August 2019 the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2019 (WA) was read for the second time in Parliament. So how will it work?
The Bill proposes that to be eligible to access voluntary assisted dying, a person must:
- have reached 18 years of age and have decision making capacity;
- be acting voluntarily and without coercion;
- be an Australian Citizen or permanent resident and have been an ordinary resident in Western Australia for a period of at least 12 months;
- have been diagnosed with at least one disease, illness or medical condition that is advanced, progressive and will cause death within a period of six (6) months or in the case of a neurodegenerative disease, within a period of 12 months; and
- the medical condition is causing suffering that cannot be relieved in a manner that the person considers tolerable.
Medical Practitioners who undertake the assessment of eligibility must have completed mandatory training to:
- Understand the legislation
- Assess decision-making capacity
- Detect coercion
- Communicate with patients at end of life, and
- Understand the patients palliative care options.
Click on the Diagram below to see the process for voluntary assisted dying, as currently set out in the Bill.
VAD-Bill
