Professor Ben White:

In some Australian states, doctors are not allowed to raise the topic of voluntary assisted dying with their patients. There is an unusual situation whereby a doctor has a patient who is expected to die within six months and, from what the doctor knows of the patient and the patient’s values, the doctor believes the patient may be interested in the option of voluntary assisted dying. Some of our states do not allow that doctor to raise the issue. The patient may not know that voluntary assisted dying exists or that he or she is eligible or the patient might just be sitting there waiting for the doctor to raise it for him or her, because of course he or she would, if possible. This has been a significant barrier to access and to knowing about the concept of voluntary assisted dying.

Another issue that has arisen is that of institutional objections. In some institutions, patients have wanted to discuss voluntary assisted dying but that was not possible. Regarding the topic of conscientious objection, patients in some states have asked their local GPs, who have been their first port of call. In places like Victoria, there is no requirement for a doctor to point to the state government service that provides information about voluntary assisted dying. A number of patients reported this barrier to accessing voluntary assisted dying because they did not know where to go next.

Those are some of the issues. I have research that I could share with the committee, if that would be useful.