Dr. Greg Mewett:

Consistently throughout the past four and a half years in Victoria, of the patients who have been approved for VAD - that means they have gone through the process, have been issued a permit and may have even been prescribed medication which may have been dispensed - about 30% of those patients do not proceed with voluntary assisted dying for a range of reasons and the Deputy hinted at some of them. One is that they no longer feel the necessity to go through with it. They may be receiving the type of care they require or have changed their mind, as people have the right to do. We reiterate throughout the process that they have the ability to change their mind and not go through with it even after they have got the medication in the cupboard. The Deputy quite correctly said that many of these patients are highly comforted and some of their suffering is already relieved by having the medication in the locked box up in a cupboard. Many of them do not need to take it but they know that if they have reached the limits of their suffering, they have been approved, they have been consistent in their approach and they have got their medication there if they wish to take it.