In a victory for dignity, Western Australia has become the second state in Australia to legalise assisted dying, otherwise known as voluntary euthanasia.
WA’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Act cleared its final parliamentary hurdle on Tuesday evening, with the bill passing just after 6 pm to rapturous applause.
We did it.
Our Bill to allow Voluntary Assisted Dying in Western Australia just officially passed Parliament.
This is a remarkable moment for our State and will go down in history as one of our most important reforms. pic.twitter.com/KQAxGdoaPZ
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) December 10, 2019
The new legislation won’t come into effect until mid-2021 but, once it does, patients with a disease that’s likely to cause death within six months (or 12 months for neurodegenerative diseases) will be granted the right to choose to end their life with a lethal “voluntary assisted dying substance”.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said it was a historic win for WA, giving the right to choose to those who are terminally ill.
It means that all of those people who are worried about their own futures, worried about their parents’ futures, will have the comfort of knowing that if they’re dying and in agony, they can exercise their own choice. It is a fundamental question of human rights to be able to exercise your own choice in that situation and it’s voluntary. Those people who want to access it will be able to access it, those people who don’t want to access it, won’t have to access it. I am very pleased for all those people out there who want to access this that that opportunity will be there for them.
Victoria passed similar legislation in 2017, with the first assisted death taking place in August.
C’mon, NSW – get it bloody done.
